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From Friday to Sunday, more than 3 million people have passed through airport security checkpoints in the United States – a record weekend for air travel since the pandemic struck in March. Sunday was the biggest day for air travel since March 16, with 1.05 million people screened.
Airlines say the cleaning procedures used between flights, the exchange of fresh cabin air throughout flights, and the hospital-grade air filters now used in planes allow for safe flying. Airlines also require passengers to wear masks.
But officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the risk of the disease spreading lies less in the theft itself and more in large family gatherings, especially with hospitals in many parts of the country already having capacity to. treat Covid patients.
The pandemic virtually brought air travel to a halt in March, with March 16 being the last day for more than one million people screened by TSA until this fall. At the beginning of April, less than 100,000 people a day passed through checkpoints. Airlines have responded by cutting their hours, drastically reducing their staff, but they still have billions in losses.
Thanksgiving week has traditionally been one of the busiest days of the year for air travel. The 3 million people who passed through U.S. airports over the weekend made up just 43% of those screened the weekend before last year’s vacation.
Traffic is expected to be even heavier later this week. American Airlines said it would increase its schedule by about 15% during Thanksgiving week, compared to the rest of November – from a daily average of 3,500 flights to more than 4,000 flights.
But there are signs that some people are changing their travel plans in response to the growing number of Covid cases. United Airlines (UAL) said on Thursday it had seen an increase in flight cancellations and a drop in bookings as the number of Covid cases increased. South West (LUV) and American Airlines (AAL) Also report a drop in bookings, although they have yet to report an increase in canceled bookings.
The airline industry does not encourage or discourage vacation travel, the industry trade group chief said Thursday.
“Do we want to see them travel? Yes, but only if it’s safe for them,” said Nick Calio, CEO of Airlines for America. “There are a variety of factors involved in this for each individual traveler.”
CNN’s Pete Muntean and Gregory Wallace contributed to this report.
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