U.S. air travel hit post-March peak on day before Thanksgiving
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Despite warnings from public health officials, more people in the U.S. boarded planes on the day before Thanksgiving than any day since March, part of a broader surge in travel that comes amid a significant surge of Covid-19 cases.
According to Transportation Security Administration figures, 1,070,967 people crossed TSA checkpoints Wednesday, part of a surge in travel in the seven days leading up to Thanksgiving that brought more than 6.8 million people to airports across the country.
But overall travel remains significantly lower than years past. Wednesday’s figure is less than half as many of the 2.6 million who traveled the day before Thanksgiving in 2019.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent a last-minute warning on Nov. 19 asking Americans to avoid traveling for Thanksgiving due to “exponential growth” in Covid-19 cases .
The 1.1 million travelers on Wednesday was the most passengers screened by the TSA since March 16, when 1.25 million passengers crossed its checkpoints. Similarly, the 6.8 million travelers in the week leading up to Thanksgiving were the most in any seven-day span since March 14 to March 20.
According to flight-tracking service FlightRadar24, there were more airplanes in the skies at noon Eastern the Tuesday before Thanksgiving than there were on the same Tuesday in 2018, and 8 percent fewer than in 2019.
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I wonder how many of them will come down with the virus and how many will be hospitalized and how many will die.
By next weekend, we should be starting to get an idea. I wonder if people will connect any potential spike in numbers of infections in the next week or so to Thanksgiving, or will they have forgotten the incubation period?