After a flat July, TSA numbers have started to increase again in August. While it doesn’t look like we are going to hit over a million daily passengers this summer, we may get close. This past Sunday the numbers finally topped 800,000 screened passengers in a day. This is just 31.4% of the volume we saw last summer for the same weekday. While more people are clearly comfortable traveling, things aren’t even close to normal.
Tracking the TSA Numbers
I’ve been watching the TSA numbers on at least a weekly basis. It’s been nice that the agency has made the data readily available for those interested. I’ve kept up a graph of the numbers and a rolling 7-day average.
It’ll take a couple weeks to see if the current increase is a brief spike, or if it is the start of a new trend. Personally, I hope that air travel continues to rebound. Anecdotally, I noticed a few more passports on Saturday on both of our flights. I travel with mine even domestically, so this might not be a true indicator. But in general, we may be seeing people heading abroad to the few countries that are open to Americans.
Final Thoughts
I’ll be graphing the numbers at least one more time as summer winds down and we had into the school year. Travel has not recovered as quickly as the airlines had hoped, and we may see a slump as we enter the fall, as summer is peak season. Without business travel returning, the outlook for the next several months may be pretty bleak.
What do you think of the coronavirus air travel recovery this summer?
September and October will see a drop-off again. Maybe the year-end holidays will see an uptick. Maybe not.