Travelers make their way through a TSA screening line. Photo: Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
American travelers didn't let flight delays or cancellations stop them from flying over July 4 weekend.
Driving the news: New data from the Transportation Security Administration show that close to 9 million people traveled over the Fourth of July weekend, rivaling numbers from 2019.
- In fact, TSA numbers show that more people went through checkpoints on July 1, 2022, than on the same day in 2019 — before the coronavirus pandemic. The same was true on June 30.
- 2022 numbers are well ahead of all 2020 numbers, given summer 2020 was in the middle of the pandemic.
- That said, July 4, 2021, had more travelers than the same day this year (2.1 million compared to 2.08 million), according to TSA.
The big picture: The high travel numbers come despite Americans facing a number of issues on the home front, including several flight disruptions and cancellations, NBC News reports.
- Airfare is higher than in previous years too. Data from Hopper show that airfare is currently around $360 per ticket on average. That number was below $350 in 2018 and 2019, per NBC News.
The bottom line: The busy travel weekend is a sign that a summer of "revenge travel" has begun in the United States, making up for the cancellations from the pandemic, Axios' Erin Doherty writes.
Go deeper ... July 4th weekend flight cancellations fueling road trips