If holiday air travel seemed particularly crowded this year, the figures add up. The Transportation Security Administration said on Monday that it had its busiest day of air travel ever on Sunday, screening more than 2.9 million passengers at airports across the country.
The previous record for the busiest day of air travel was set on June 30, when the TSA screened 2.8 million people in one day
According to the TSA, the three busiest travel days of the year are traditionally the Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving, as well as the Sunday following.
The agency expected this holiday season to be its busiest ever, with seven of the top ten busiest travel days already recorded in 2023.
The previous high was set on June 30, when the TSA reported screening 2.8 million people in one day. The next highest number, with only 1,869 fewer people, was on December 1, 2019.
The TSA predicts that Tuesday and Wednesday this week will be nearly as busy as Sunday, with an estimated 2.6 million passengers screened on Tuesday and 2.7 million passengers screened on Wednesday.
It has advised passengers to arrive two hours before scheduled flight departures to allow for parking, baggage check-in, and security screening.
Although no official figures were immediately available, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport said it expected 3.6 million passengers to pass through from Nov. 17 to Tuesday, with 80,000 passengers alone recorded on Monday.
According to a spokesperson, Los Angeles International Airport received approximately 206,000 passengers on Sunday. From November 16 to November 27, the airport expects up to 2.5 million passengers.
O’Hare International and Midway airports in Chicago said they expected more than 285,000 passengers on Sunday, with a total of 1.65 million passengers from Nov. 21 to 27.
The TSA’s record on the number of screened passengers comes on the heels of a report earlier this month from a group of aviation experts warning the Federal Aviation Administration that airport staffing shortages, aging technology, and inadequate funding are exacerbating the risk of accidents and flight delays at the country’s airports.
The FAA commissioned the panel to provide advice, and it provided a list of safety recommendations to help avoid “future serious incidents or accidents.”