TSA sees historic surge in airline travel with six daily records already reached this year
The summer travel season started off hot when TSA screened almost 3.1 million passengers on June 22, ABC News reported. It was the busiest travel day in the agency's 24-year history.
Friday June 27 and Sunday June 29 rank as the seventh and eighth busiest days in TSA history pushing 2025 to claim six of the agency's top 10 busiest days on record.
"Airlines are offering great deals, and with Fourth of July falling on a Friday this year, it extends the weekend for many folks," Keith Jeffries, former federal security director at Los Angeles International Airport, told the outlet.
TSA expects to screen more than 18.5 million air travelers over this year's Fourth of July travel period, which is from Tuesday, July 1 to Monday, July 7.
'TSA continues to work closely with our industry partners and ensure our airport security checkpoints are fully staffed and prepared to handle the heavy rush of traffic,' the agency's Acting Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill said in a press release issued last week.
Jeffries believes this record-breaking travel is a good economic sign.
"When you see TSA hitting some of the busiest days in its history, it's a testament to how well the economy is doing. People are traveling again, and that's exciting to see,' he told ABC News.
Jeffries expects air travel to continue to increase: "We've seen steady year-over-year growth of 3 to 5% on average, with some airports experiencing even more significant increases based on population growth in certain cities."
A major airplane crash at the start of the year sparked fears about the safety of flying but that doesn't seem to have stopped most travelers from booking their summer vacation flights.
On January 29, an American Airlines flight collided with an Army helicopter near Washington, D.C., killing all 67 people on board.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been publicly calling for an upgrade of the country's aging air traffic control system since then.
In an opinion piece published by Fox News in May, Duffy pushed for President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' a piece of spending legislation that he said would, in part, put $12.5 billion towards 'state-of-the-art radar, fiber optic lines, and new radios.'
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