Passengers at a United gate in San Francisco
More Americans traveled by air this Labor Day weekend than in the same period in 2021 or 2020, the first two years of the pandemic.
The rebound in travel comes as people continue to seek out “revenge” travel to make up for being homebound for the early period of the pandemic. It comes despite higher airfares, ongoing disruptions to flights and at airports, and the pinch households are feeling in their budgets.
Domestic air fares were estimated to be 20% higher this holiday than they were in the first two years of the pandemic.
The busiest travel day thus far was Thursday, September 1, with 2.3 million people traversing airport security checkpoints in the United States, followed by Friday, September 2, with 2.2 million.
Overall, in the first three days of the holiday weekend, 6.3 million people flew, an increase of one million people compared to 5.3 million in the same period in 2021.
Some 8.3 million people in the United States have flown in the four-day period Thursday through Sunday this year, roughly the same number as reported for 2019.
To put the numbers further in perspective, in 2020, only 3.8 million people flew in the course of the full five-day holiday period (figures for Monday for the current year were not yet published at the time of publication).
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
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