Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
Travelers arrive to the Newark Liberty International Airport during the Memorial Day weekend in Newark, New Jersey, May 24, 2024.
CNN
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If you’ve flown this weekend or are hopping on a flight today, it’s likely you’re making history.
Passenger traffic at US airports is on pace to make this Memorial Day weekend the busiest on record, according to Transportation Security Administration screening data.
Following record-setting traveler data for Friday (2.951 million, No. 1 screening day in TSA history) and Thursday (2.897 million, No. 3 ever), more than 2.4 million people passed through TSA checkpoints on each day this weekend.
What’s amounting to be a blockbuster Memorial Day weekend could be a precursor to a chart-busting summer of travel.
Five of the top 10 busiest travel days in the TSA’s 22-year history have occurred in the past two weeks alone.
“During the four-day Memorial Day weekend in 2019, approximately 9.5 million passengers were screened; In 2023, that number rose just above 9.8 million,” Regina Boateng, a TSA spokesperson, told CNN via email. “This year, we expect the four-day figure to rise well above 10 million.”
She added: “It’s difficult to compare holidays, as some fall on varying days of the week. However, TSA expects this summer to also be the busiest in the agency’s history.”
Three-plus years of high inflation have taken their toll on Americans’ budgets and, especially, their mindsets. But even though people may be feeling pinched, some are still willing to spend — if not splurge — on travel and leisure.
And there is some good news on the inflation front in that regard: Airline fares dropped in April from March and are actually down a little more than 1% from February 2020, Consumer Price Index data shows.
Americans aren’t just taking to the slightly cheaper skies: AAA projected that a record 38.4 million people will take road trips over the long weekend.
Gas prices rose sharply to start the year but have held fairly steady in recent weeks. On Monday, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.59, a penny higher than this time last year, according to AAA.
This story is developing and will be updated.