TSA screened 11.9M people during Fourth of July holiday weekend

WASHINGTON - The July fourth holiday weekend proved to be another record-breaking travel period for the Transportation Security Administration. Nationwide from July 3 to 7, more than 11.9 million passengers and crew went through security checkpoints, and over 8 million checked bags were screened. On Sunday, July 7, TSA experienced its busiest day in history, screening 2,795,014 passengers and crew surpassing the Memorial Day weekend record by a couple thousand.

“The operational success we experienced over the July fourth holiday weekend is a testament to the combined efforts of our dedicated workforce and industry alliances,” said TSA Acting Deputy Administrator Patricia Cogswell. “What I’m most proud of isn’t just the quantity of passengers and checked bags screened, but the quality of the screening our people provided even with that tremendous volume.”

Despite the surge of passengers over the weekend, nationwide 99.7% of passengers waited less than 30 minutes in standard lanes, and 99.1% of TSA Pre✓® passengers waited less than 10 minutes.

TSA expects many more record-breaking periods this summer and advises passengers to continue to arrive to the airport prepared and early – two hours before a domestic flight and three hours before an international flight.

TSA typically screens about 2.2 million passengers and crew members each day. Passenger throughput over the July fourth holiday travel period surpassed the 2.2 million average every day with the exception of Thursday, July 4.

Top 10 busiest days in TSA history

*The numbers are current as of July 10, 2019.

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