© 2025. The Trustees of Indiana University
Copyright Complaints
1229 East Seventh Street, Bloomington, Indiana 47405
News, Arts and Culture from WFIU Public Radio and WTIU Public Television
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Federal funding for public media has been eliminated — we need your help to continue serving south central Indiana
Some web content from Indiana Public Media is unavailable during our transition to a new web publishing platform. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Americans Set Another Pandemic-Era Record For Air Travel

Travelers at Indianapolis International Airport.
Travelers at Indianapolis International Airport.

Americans set a record for pandemic-era air travel, then broke it again over the Mother’s Day holiday weekend.

The Transportation Security Administration said that slightly more than 1.7 million people were screened at airport checkpoints on Sunday, the highest number since March 2020, when travel was collapsing because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Sunday’s mark was about 4,500 more than the previous record, set just two days earlier.

However, those crowds were still far smaller than before the pandemic. Sunday’s TSA count was down 29% from the comparable Sunday two years ago, according to TSA.

READ MORE:  Got Spring Travel Plans? CDC Recommends A COVID-19 Test Before & After Your Trip

Air travel has been rising slowly for more than a year since hitting bottom in mid-April 2020. The numbers had leveled off recently, but with the busy weekend, the 7-day moving average of U.S. air travelers surpassed the period around the Easter holiday and also set a pandemic-era high.

Airlines say most of the people on flights now are leisure travelers going to destinations within the United States.

International travelers entering the U.S. are required to show proof of a negative test for COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said recently travelers can meet that requirement with federally approved home-testing kits, potentially making international travel a little easier.