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The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was planning to break a record this past holiday weekend and it did just that. The government agency has screened over 3.08 million passengers on December 1st. This marked the busiest day ever in the agency’s history.
BREAKING NEWS: Yesterday, December 1st was the busiest day ever for TSA – our officers screened 3.087M individuals at airports nationwide. If you're still traveling home from the Thanksgiving holiday, please arrive at the airport early. Contact @AskTSA with any travel questions. pic.twitter.com/lhzGYb2Gw6
— TSA (@TSA) December 2, 2024
This record-breaking number beat the previous high set this year on July 7th by around 74,000 travelers. July 7th was also a Sunday after a holiday and saw record numbers (at the time) return home from their holiday trips. It was not all smooth sailing, er flying, as hundreds of thousands of travelers were delayed or had their flights canceled over the holidays. Airlines canceled about 120 flights and more than 6,800 were delayed according to FlightAware. The largest numbers of delays occurred at some of the country’s biggest airports like Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD).
The question now is whether this record will hold through the Christmas holiday week or if we’ll see records shattered again. So-called “revenge travel” has shifted to be the new norm with people taking those trips without thoughts around cost or how they’ll actually pay off these tickets. Premium travel in particular has seen tremendous demand. So much, that even Frontier Airlines has announced that it’s adding a First Class cabin.
Anthony’s Take: Anecdotally, I can say that people are out in full force. Lounges are packed, Starbucks took 27 minutes to complete my mobile order this morning at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), and security lines are taking longer than ever. It doesn’t seem like the next holiday will be any less crazy than Thanksgiving. Arrive early and have some patience as the airports are being pushed to their breaking points.
(Featured Image Credit: TSA.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
