Taylor Rains/Insider
- The TSA screened over two million passengers on Labor Day, though numbers are down 11.7% compared to 2019.
- While airports were busy, 92.3% of passengers waited less than 15 minutes at the security checkpoint, according to the TSA.
- Covid cases are more than 300% higher compared to Labor Day 2020, according to data from John Hopkins University.
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The Transportation Security Administration has seen passenger numbers drop over the past three weeks, but Labor Day saw a spike in traffic with over two million travelers screened. However, numbers still lag behind pre-pandemic levels.
According to data from the TSA, the agency screened a little over two million passengers on Labor Day – an 11.7% drop compared to 2019. However, traffic was significantly higher than 2020 which only saw about 935,000 travelers screened on Labor Day and 3.3 million in total over the holiday last year.
Although leisure demand has slowed into the fall season, TSA spokesperson Daniel Velez told Insider the agency expected passenger numbers to increase over the Labor Day holiday, though it does not predict specific volumes.
The TSA posted on Twitter Monday advising passengers to get to the airport early. Although airports were busy, Velez said 92.3% of passengers waited less than 15 minutes in security lines. However, he said a few airports including Denver, Orlando, Anchorage, and Kahului had a little longer wait times.
-TSA (@TSA) September 6, 2021
About 2.1 million passengers were screened on Friday, according to the TSA, putting it only 4% below pre-pandemic levels and making it the busiest travel day over the holiday. However, despite seeing over two million passengers twice during the four-day weekend, only 7.3 million people total took to the skies compared to 8.6 million in 2019, with Saturday having the lowest traffic at just over 1.5 million travelers.
While air travel fell below 2019 numbers again, millions of people still flocked to stadiums, concerts, and crowded events to celebrate the holiday. According to data from John Hopkins University, the delta variant has caused a 300% increase in cases compared to Labor Day 2020. The seven-day average of new cases on Monday was 137,270, soaring over the 39,355 average on the same day last year.