In an exciting streak beginning March 11, 2021, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has continuously screened at least one million passengers per day for just over one month.
TSA has seen a steady increase in passenger screenings starting in mid-February, a promising milestone in the travel industry’s recovery. The agency anticipated this increase in passengers and in March, set out to hire transportation security officers at 430 airports nationwide.
The last time TSA screened more than one million passengers in 2020 was March 15 and the number did not reach one million again until October 18, 2020 when 1,031,505 passengers were screened.
In the first three months of 2021, TSA screened 86 million passengers, which is down 45% over the first three months of 2020. But in the first 15 days of April 2021, TSA has screened 21 million passengers, compared to 2020 when only 1.5 million passengers were screened in the first half of April.