The Transportation Security Administration processed 2.6 million airport passengers on the Sunday after Thanksgiving and has been added to the agency’s list of the 10 busiest days in air travel history.
Exactly 2,609,372 passengers passed through TSA checkpoints Sunday, making it the fifth busiest day since the agency was established 16 years ago following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Five of the agency’s 10 busiest days in history took place in 2017.
“From Friday, Nov. 17 through Sunday, Nov. 26, TSA screened 21,613,767 passengers and crew at airport checkpoints nationwide. More than 13.6 million checked bags were screened during the same time period,” TSA said in a statement.
“Typically, an average travel day would see TSA screen in the neighborhood of 2.1 million passengers and crew, but in the busiest days of the Thanksgiving travel week, TSA screened as many as a half million more passengers per day than usual.”
The highest traffic day was Nov. 28, 2004, when TSA screened 2.71 million people. It was also the Sunday following Thanksgiving.
TSA expected to set a record over the past week. Agents processed more travelers this last summer than any previous one and averaged 2.28 million travelers per day, nearly 15 percent more than the average 2 million passengers processed at airports on a standard day.
