Mother’s Day Sets Post-Pandemic TSA Passenger Records

This past weekend, which included Mother’s Day in the U.S., saw TSA passenger numbers the likes of which haven’t been seen since early 2019 – prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. With over 1.7 million passengers, this represented over 70% of normal seasonal passenger volume. This continues, and even surpasses, the steady return of passenger volume and further suggests a large amount of travel this summer.

Not only did the 1.7m passenger barrier get broken – which hadn’t been seen since March 12th 2020, right before the pandemic first wave hit – but this also represented a 8.5 times increase year over year in passenger volume, suggesting that people are ready to travel again.

Although some areas of the industry will lag behind, such as international travel and some business travel, these numbers suggest that people on the whole are comfortable travelling around the country, looking forward to seeing others and making up for a lost year.

This vision is supported by the airlines as well. With almost all of the Regional Airlines officially announcing they’re hiring, including AeroGuard partner SkyWest Airlines, plus the major airlines are expected to follow shortly behind having recalled all previously furloughed pilots. With large new plane orders made in recent weeks, and following a large amount of incentivized early retirements from the airlines, the pilot shortage that has been looming over the industry for years seems to be imminent, good news for pilots in training and those soon to be student pilots.