The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced on Sunday (December 1st) that a record-breaking 3.08 million airline passengers underwent security screenings on that day.
This record-breaking volume of travel coincided with the Thanksgiving holiday travel season. U.S. airlines are expected to transport over 31 million passengers during the holiday period, surpassing the nearly 29 million from the same period in 2023.
This marks the second time that the agency screened over 3 million passengers in a single day. TSA had earlier projected a record-breaking 18.3 million screenings from November 26th through Monday (December 2nd), a 6% increase compared to 2023.
American Airlines announced last Saturday (November 30th) that as of November 29th (last Friday), the company had operated 58,000 flights and only canceled 95 flights.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported that between November 24th and 28th, they tracked over 232,000 flights, setting a record for the Thanksgiving week.
FAA noted that only 0.3% of flights were canceled, and the delay rate hit a historic low of 1.2%. FAA has been actively addressing the ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers. United Airlines stated last week that this issue led to major disruptions at its hub in Newark, New Jersey.
(This article referenced reports from Reuters)