The U.S. just saw its busiest air travel day in history

Associated Press and Marc Sternfield

21 mins ago

More than 3 million people passed through U.S. airport security on Sunday, marking a new single-day record, according to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.

The record, which was widely predicted to happen at some point over the July Four holiday weekend, topped the June 23 mark of more than 2.99 million screened passengers. Eight of the ten busiest days in TSA’s history have come this year as the number of travelers exceeds pre-pandemic levels.

At Los Angeles International Airport, officials expected 241,000 people to pass through terminals on Sunday and over 2 million during the June 27 through July 8 holiday travel period.

“Looking ahead, domestic travel remains steady leading into the fall, and international travel continues to grow, with notable increases in travel to Canada and Central and South America,” said Doug Webster, Interim Chief Operations and Maintenance Officer at LAX.

While Americans continue to grapple with inflation, travel costs, including airline tickets and hotel prices, have eased significantly from a year ago. Hotel rooms were 1.2% cheaper in May compared with a year ago, according to recent government inflation data. Those costs have been trending lower since the beginning of the year.

While most U.S. airlines lost money in the first quarter — traditionally the weakest time of year for travel — they were all expecting a summer of full planes.

This spring, American and Southwest said they expected solid second quarter profits. They joined Delta Air Lines and United Airlines in giving an upbeat outlook for the April-through-June period, which includes the start of peak season for carriers.

Delta reports its second-quarter earnings on Thursday, with analysts predicting sales of $15.5 billion, nearly $1 billion more than the same period a year ago. Next week, United and American issue their quarterly results, with Wall Street forecasting higher revenue from a year ago for both carriers.

TSA was created after the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and replaced a collection of private security companies that were hired by airlines. The agency operates under the Department of Homeland Security, which said that agents on Sunday checked 35 passengers every second.