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TSA expects to screen record number of travelers over Fourth of July holiday

AAA predicts nearly 71M people will travel for long holiday weekend

By CODY JACKSON and DAVID KOENIG, Associated Press
Published: July 3, 2024, 4:44pm
Updated: July 3, 2024, 4:44pm
2 Photos
Holiday travelers pass through Salt Lake City International Airport Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in Salt Lake City.
Holiday travelers pass through Salt Lake City International Airport Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) Photo Gallery

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Nicole Lindsay thought she could beat the holiday-week travel rush by booking an early-morning flight. It didn’t work out that way.

“I thought it wouldn’t be that busy, but it turned out to be quite busy,” the Baltimore resident said as she herded her three daughters through Palm Beach International Airport in Florida. “It was a lot of kids on the flight, so it was kind of noisy — a lot of crying babies.”

Lindsay said the flight was full, but her family arrived safely to spend a few days in Port Saint Lucie, so she was not complaining.

Airlines hope the outcome is just as good for millions of other passengers scheduled to take holiday flights over the next few days.

AAA forecasts that 70.9 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home over a nine-day stretch that began June 27, a 5 percent increase over the comparable period around the Fourth of July last year. Most of those people will drive, and the motor club says traffic will be the worst between 2 and 7 p.m. most days.

Federal officials expect air-travel records to fall as Americans turn the timing of July Fourth on a Thursday into a four-day — or longer — holiday weekend.

The Transportation Security Administration predicts that its officers will screen more than 3 million travelers at U.S. airports on Sunday. That would top the June 23 mark of more than 2.99 million. American Airlines said Sunday is expected to be its busiest day of the entire summer; it plans more than 6,500 flights.

Eight of the 10 busiest days in TSA’s history have come this year, as the number of travelers tops pre-pandemic levels.

The head of the agency, David Pekoske, said Wednesday that TSA has enough screeners to handle the expected crowds this weekend and through the summer.

“We have been totally tested over the course of the last couple of months in being able to meet our wait-time standards of 10 minutes for a PreCheck passenger and 30 minutes for a standard passenger, so we are ready,” Pekoske said on NBC’s “Today” show.

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