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Nearly one month ago, I wrote an article titled “The Real Numbers: Are People Still Flying?” in which we looked at the daily amount of passengers that were traveling domestically and compared it to daily amount of passengers that were traveling domestically the previous year (2019).
At that time we were seeing approximately 90,000 passengers passing through TSA check points daily. However, over the past week or so, we’ve seen many states “re-open” their economies.
In fact, this coming Monday, at least 31 states will have begun to ease restrictions on businesses, and social activity after weeks of social distancing and other various restrictions.
Would this affect the number of flying passengers? I assumed numbers would slowly increase over time but that is far from the case. I find the difference over the past 3 weeks…interesting, to say the least.
So how many people are traveling now and how does it compare to this time last year?
THE REAL NUMBERS
TSA’s Public Affairs spokesperson, Lisa Farbstein, updates her Twitter account (@tsamedia_lisaf) every day with a lot of interesting articles and data. But perhaps the most interesting data she shares is on how many people are passing through TSA checkpoints.
Note: TSA also updates these numbers on their website every morning at 9AM. If you don’t have twitter, you can see the numbers HERE.
In addition to the current daily numbers, she provides a comparison of how many people passed through TSA checkpoints during the same date the previous year.
Let’s take a look at the last few days and the percentage of flying passengers compared to last year.
| Date | 2020 | 2019 | % of passengers flying (2020 vs 2019) |
| 5/8 | 215,444 | 2,602,631 | ~8.2% |
| 5/7 | 190,863 | 2,555,342 | ~7.5% |
| 5/6 | 140,409 | 2,270,662 | ~6.2% |
| 5/5 | 130,601 | 2,106,597 | ~6.2% |
I think it’s safe to assume that many passengers are feeling “safer” about flying as there has been a ~147% increase in the number of passengers between the record low on 4/14 (~87,000 passengers) and three weeks later on 5/8 (215,000 passengers).
FINAL STAMP
Over the course of the past three weeks, the number of passengers transiting through TSA have more than doubled.
Although, ~215,000 passengers is only ~8% of the passengers that flew on the same date last year, I find these numbers fascinating particularly because cases of COVID-19 are still increasing daily.
Perhaps, Gary Kelly, CEO of Southwest Airlines, had some influence in this when he said “flying is safe” a few days ago?
Are you surprised by these numbers? Do you feel it’s “safe” to travel? Have you flown recently or plan to fly again soon?
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