U.S. air travel peaked after March the day before Thanksgiving

Despite warnings from public health officials, more people in the United States embarked on Thanksgiving Eve than on any day since March, as part of a larger increase in travel that comes amid a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases.

According to figures from the Transportation Security Administration, 1,070,967 people passed through TSA checkpoints on Wednesday, as part of an increase in trips in the seven days leading up to Thanksgiving that brought in more than 6.8 million people. at airports across the country.

But overall, travel remains significantly lower than in past years. Wednesday’s figure is less than half of the 2.6 million who traveled the day before Thanksgiving in 2019.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent out a last-minute warning on November 19 asking Americans to avoid traveling on Thanksgiving due to the “exponential growth” of Covid-19 cases.

More than 1.2 million people in the United States contracted Covid-19 in the week leading up to Thanksgiving, almost double the 635,000 new cases three weeks earlier. The number of cases continues to rise across most of the country.

The 1.1 million travelers on Wednesday were the most screened passengers by the TSA since March 16, when 1.25 million passengers passed through its checkpoints. Likewise, the 6.8 million travelers in the week leading up to Thanksgiving were the most numerous in a seven-day period from March 14 to March 20.

According to flight tracking service FlightRadar24, there were more planes in the sky at noon Eastern on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving than there were on the same Tuesday in 2018, and 8% fewer than in 2019.