The Transportation Security Administration is likely to screen 2.4 million air passengers each day during this coming Thanksgiving week, and could break the record of 2.71 million people screened in a single day in 2004.
That record was set on Nov. 28, 2004, the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Record numbers are likely again this Thanksgiving, as TSA processed more travelers this last summer than any previous one. Officers screened an average of 2.28 million travelers per day, nearly 15 percent more than the average 2 million passengers processed at airports on a standard day.
Of the agency’s 10 busiest days in history, four were recorded this summer. Just under 240 million people took commercial flights between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekend.
The summer trends are likely to continue this week, and that Thanksgiving week has historically been one of the busiest times of the year for air travel.
For example, Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport processes an average of 28,000 passengers each day but announced last week it expects to see between 30,000 and 40,000 people per day next week, according to a press release.
The organization plans to use all personnel, including management, to deal with the massive levels of traffic across the country’s airports.
“The week of Thanksgiving and the days leading up to and immediately after Thanksgiving are ‘all hands on deck’ types of days when even many administrators come to the checkpoints to assist with getting passengers through the checkpoint efficiently,” TSA press secretary Lisa Farbstein told the Washington Examiner.
Farbstein said the two days before Thanksgiving and the following Sunday are the busiest travel days of the holiday week.
“The best advice I can offer is to get to the airport at least two hours early and expect to see many lines — a line to either park a car or to return a rental car; a line to get your boarding pass and check your bags; a line at the checkpoint; and even lines to get a coffee or use a restroom,” she added.
Another sign that this year will continue to be busy is that TSA has already set a new annual record for most firearms seized, and still has six weeks remaining in the year. Last year, a total of 3,391 guns were confiscated, and 83 percent of those weapons were loaded with ammunition, according to government data.
The number of loaded and unloaded firearms apprehended by officers has increased every year over the past decade. In 2007, the Department of Homeland Security agency documented 803 guns discovered at airport checkpoints. That number ticked up a few dozen in the first year then began climbing a few hundred each year after. By 2014, TSA reported 2,212 gun seizures and then 2,653 in 2015.
Firearm possession laws vary with state and local laws. However, firearms must be unloaded and locked in a hard-sided container and transported as checked baggage in order to be allowed on a flight.
All parts, including ammunition, must be declared at the airline ticket counter during the check-in process. Those who do not follow the law can be arrested and fined up to $11,000.
