The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened a record number of passengers during the 2017 holiday travel period, Dec. 15, 2017, through Jan. 2, 2018.
TSA officers screened 42 million passengers and more than 30.6 million checked bags screened nationwide. Dec. 22 was the busiest day of the 2017 holiday travel period and the 11th busiest day in TSA’s history, with more than 2.5 million passengers and crew members screened.
“We saw a record number of passengers during both the Thanksgiving and Christmas travel periods,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said. “With enhanced security measures in place and the bustle of holiday travelers, our TSA officers excelled. They operated efficiently while maintaining a keen focus on security effectiveness, which was an enormous task, and I am very proud of them all.”
TSA screened as many as 400,000 more passengers per day on the busiest days of the holiday travel period than the approximately 2.1 million passengers and crew officers screen on an average travel day.
97 percent of all passengers waited less than 20 minutes at the checkpoint and 95.6 percent of passengers who were in a TSA Pre✓ lane waited less than 5 minutes, TSA said.
“The combination of increased passenger volume with a persistent terror threat means that TSA must continue to invest in its screening workforce, strengthen its close partnerships with the airline industry and deploy state-of-the-art technology,” Pekoske said.