The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have advised Americans to stay home this holiday season. But on Christmas Eve, more than 1.1 million people boarded airplanes – the largest number of air travelers since March, according to data compiled by the Transportation Security Administration.
TSA data showed that about 1,191,123 travelers passed through airport checkpoints across the country on Wednesday, the largest number of people since March 16, when more than 1.2 million people boarded planes when the coronavirus started to establish itself in the United States.
Recent trend lines suggest that some Americans are not following the CDC’s advice. From last Friday to Sunday, 3.2 million people boarded planes, according to agency data – more than 1 million daily passengers.
“If you choose to travel this holiday, wear a mask,” TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said in a tweet announcing the apparent increase in air travel in the pandemic era.
But overall, air travel remains lower than in previous years. The day before Christmas Eve last year, for example, about 2 million people – 1,937,235 – crossed the airport’s control points, according to TSA.
The recent increase in the number of travelers echoes a similar increase around Thanksgiving. The day before the holiday, 1,070,967 people passed TSA control points. It was part of an increase in travel in the seven days leading up to Thanksgiving, which took more than 6.8 million people to airports.
In recent weeks, the CDC has encouraged Americans to reconsider vacation travel plans, highlighting the health risks associated with commercial transportation and meeting with groups of people outside their immediate family.
“Traveling can increase your chance to advertise and get Covid-19,” said the CDC in a message on its website. “CDC continues to recommend postponing travel and staying at home, as this is the best way to protect yourself and others this year.”
The American Automobile Association, for its part, said earlier this month that it expected most Americans to stay home instead of traveling on vacation.
In a press release on December 15, AAA said it expected up to 84.5 million Americans to be able to travel between December 23 and January 3 – a reduction of at least 29% compared to last year’s figures.
