Airline surge indicates Americans itching to travel

UNDATED (AP) – Across the United States, air travel is recovering more quickly from the depths of the pandemic, and it is showing up in longer airport security lines and busier traffic on airline websites.

The Transportation Security Administration screened more than 1.3 million people both Friday and Sunday, setting a new high since the coronavirus outbreak devastated travel a year ago. Airlines say they believe the numbers are heading up, with more people booking flights for spring and summer.

However, the airlines still have far to go before travel fully returns to pre-pandemic levels.

The number of people passing through airport checkpoints has topped 1 million for four straight days and the 7-day rolling average is the highest in the pandemic era. But air traffic is still down more than 50% in March compared with the same period in 2019.