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The 4th of July holiday weekend is crowding U.S. airports since the 2020 pandemic began.
About 2.49 million passengers passed through security checkpoints at U.S. airports on Friday, surpassing the pandemic-era record of 2.46 million set earlier this week, according to data from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) released Saturday.
The rising numbers suggest that leisure travelers are not giving up flying because of rising fares, the continued spread of Covid-19 or concerns about recurring flight delays and cancellations.
Passenger traffic on Friday was up 13 percent from July 1 last year and was down on Thursdays leading up to July 4 last year.
The number of passengers passing through U.S. airports this year also surpassed the 2.35 million who passed through security checkpoints on the Friday before July 4, 2019, but that was nearly a week earlier than Independence Day.
An average of 2.33 million passengers passed through security checkpoints at domestic airports in the seven days ended July 1, a further sign that U.S. air travel is returning to its pre-pandemic state.
That’s close to the seven-day average of about 2.38 million passengers in the same period in 2019, according to TSA data.
But airlines have struggled to keep up with surging demand due to staffing shortages and a host of other problems that have led to waves of irritating flight delays and cancellations that have turned some holidays into nightmares ‘s test.
Many airlines, including Delta, Southwest and JetBlue, have responded to this challenge by shortening their summer flights to reduce the inconvenience and backlash from flight delays and cancellations.
They use larger planes to transport more passengers on average, while they scramble to hire and train more pilots.
The headaches continued on Friday, although they weren’t as severe as they have been at other times in recent months.
More than 6,800 flight delays and another 587 cancellations affected U.S. airports on Friday, according to tracking site FlightAware.
Trouble also spread to Saturday, with thunderstorms complicating conditions on the East Coast and parts of the Midwest. Nearly 4,000 flights were delayed and more than 600 canceled at U.S. airports as of late Saturday, according to FlightAware.
In addition to flight delays and cancellations, travelers are also having to pay higher prices for airfares that have risen due to soaring fuel costs and other inflationary factors, as well as dealing with health risks from the ongoing Covid-19 infection.
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