US screened record 3.13 million airline passengers on Sunday

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) – The U.S. Transportation Security Administration said it screened 3.13 million airline passengers on Sunday, the highest number for a single day.

The record travel coincided with the peak day of the Thanksgiving travel season and occurred despite weather issues in the U.S. Midwest. The prior record for a single day was June 22 when 3.09 million passengers were screened.

Trade group Airlines for America said it expected U.S. airlines would fly 31 million passengers in the 11-day period ending Monday.

The Federal Aviation Administration forecast there would be more than 360,000 flights over the nine days ending Dec. 2, the highest number in 15 years.

Before 2024, the TSA had screened more than 3 million passengers in a single day only twice, but it surpassed 3 million travelers on eight separate days in 2025.

The Biden administration increased the size of the TSA, which has nearly 60,000 employees, as air travel has increased in recent years. The TSA screened 904 million passengers in 2024, which was a record high and a 5% increase from 2023.

Many airlines also have had to contend over the holidays with an issue involving Airbus 320 airplanes. Several U.S. air carriers said they were carrying out a snap software retrofit ordered by Airbus, and mandated by global regulators, after a vulnerability to solar flares emerged in a recent mid-air incident on a JetBlue A320.

JetBlue said the issue had forced it to cancel another 20 flights on Monday as it continues to complete work on planes covered by the order.

(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul and Paul Simao)