We’ve been tracking this data throughout the pandemic. October data is coming in daily from TSA on how many people are traveling currently in the United States.
For reference, leisure travel makes up about 65% of all flights in the U.S.
Through October 21st just under 40,000,000 TSA screenings took place in the U.S. vs. 17,000,000 in 2020. The data gets interesting when evaluating October TSA screening numbers vs. October 2019 pre-pandemic.
If we compare 2021 October TSA screening numbers to October 2019, you’ll see that the travel levels are nearing pre-pandemic levels. In October 2019 (through 21 days, the date this article is written) TSA screened just over 50,000,000 passengers, we are tracking right at 40,000,000 currently through October 21st this year.
What does all this mean? The U.S. is currently seeing roughly 80% of passengers that we had flying before the pandemic.
When you factor in that corporate travel is down considerably to pre-pandemic levels you can make the case that roughly the same number of leisure travelers are hitting the skies this October.
This is a really positive sign for the airline industry and domestic travel companies around the U.S.
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