Airport Traffic in the US (2019 vs. 2020)

This graph highlights a significant decrease in air travel due to Covid-19 pandemic. It displays the number of daily transits (and the 5-day moving average) through airports in the US in 2020 and 2019, based on the data released by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) (https://www.tsa.gov/coronavirus/passenger-throughput). These travel numbers include those who have been screened at US airports in domestic and international flights. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has not only affected international movement, but it also resulted in lower number of airline passengers domestically. According to TSA’s data, the number of travelers has decreased over 90% in April 2020, compared to April 2019. While for instance, on April 14, 2019, 2.208.688 passengers went through TSA screening at the airport, the same day in 2020, there were only 87.534 passengers.  

However, over the summer of 2020, air travel showed signs of recovery as the number of transits increased approximately sevenfold in mid-summer, peaking at 968,673 on September 4, 2020. However, this figure is still 40% of what it was last year, when 2.292.985 travelers were screened by the TSA in the same weekday.  

Although people have been traveling less this year, the trend in graph shows that the airline traffic has been bouncing back, albeit slowly.