BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — The Fourth of July holiday weekend jammed U.S. airports with their biggest crowds since the pandemic began in 2020.
About 2.49 million passengers passed through security checkpoints at US airports on Friday, surpassing the previous pandemic-era record of 2.46 million set earlier in the week, according to data released Saturday by the Transportation Security Administration .
The escalating numbers show that leisure travelers are undeterred by rising prices, the ongoing spread of COVID-19 or concerns about repeated flight delays and cancellations.
Friday passenger volume saw a 13% increase from July 1 last year, falling on the Thursday before July 4. This year, the number of travelers passing through U.S. airports also eclipsed the 2.35 million screened at security checkpoints on the Friday before July 4 in 2019, but that was nearly a week before Independence Day.
In a more telling sign of how close U.S. air travel is returning to pre-pandemic conditions, an average of 2.33 million passengers passed through security checkpoints at domestic airports in the seven days ending July 1. That was close to the seven-day average of roughly 2.38 million passengers during the same period in 2019, according to the TSA.
But airlines are struggling to keep up with rising demand amid staff shortages and a host of other problems that have led to repeated waves of exasperating flight delays and cancellations that turn some vacations into nightmare ordeals.
Many airlines, including Delta, Southwest and JetBlue, have responded to the challenge by shortening their flight schedules in an effort to reduce the inconvenience — and backlash — caused by flight delays and cancellations. They use larger planes on average to carry more passengers while you struggle to hire and train more pilots.
The headaches continued on Friday, although they were not as severe as in recent months. There were more than 6,800 flight delays and another 587 canceled flights affecting U.S. airports on Friday, according to tracking site FlightAware.
The problems extended into Saturday as thunderstorms made things difficult along the East Coast and parts of the Midwest. By late Saturday, nearly 4,000 flights had been delayed and more than 600 canceled at U.S. airports, according to FlightAware.
In addition to flight delays and cancellations, travelers have also had to pay higher fares driven by rising fuel costs and other inflationary factors, as well as navigate the health risks posed by ongoing COVID-19 infections.
The travel bug also clogs highways, even with the national average gas price hovering around $5 a gallon — and over $6 a gallon in California and all its popular tourist attractions. AAA predicts that nearly 48 million people will travel at least 50 miles or more from home on the weekend, down slightly from 2019.
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