The Transportation Security Administration is gearing up for a busy summer travel season this year, with anticipated passenger volumes expected to exceed pre-pandemic years.
This years' summer travel season is expected to be busy and anticipated passenger volumes are expected to "match and may occasionally exceed those" of the same period in 2019, before COVID-19 descended on the world, the May 10 TSA news release said.
"Daily passenger volumes at TSA checkpoints show that people are traveling again, and TSA is ready for their return," TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in the news release. "We continue to recruit, retain, train and equip a highly-skilled workforce, and we work continuously with our airport and airline partners to anticipate and prepare for higher traffic patterns."
TSA's airport security checkpoints are staffed by "47,500 highly-trained security professionals" who use new technologies that reduce physical contact while enhancing security, Pekoske said.
The summer travel season generally begin in late May, usually around Memorial Day weekend, and ends just past the Labor Day weekend, TSA reported. This year's season spans three full months and four major holidays. This year, those holidays include Juneteenth, the newest federal holiday, June 20.
The pandemic brought with it low travel volumes that required "more patience and planning than was necessary before the pandemic," and TSA checkpoint environments and procedures changed, the news release said. Those changes included enhanced screening operations, in addition to procedures to ensure safety and well-being of the nation's traveling public, and to minimize COVID-19's spread.
TSA pandemic-driven security enhancements at airport screening checkpoints include deployment of TSA's Credential Authentication Technology and Computed Tomography scanners to improve passenger identification verification. TSA has employed deployed more than 1,600 Credential Authentication Technology units in 176 airports, including 90 CAT units that have been modified and equipped to read and verify digital identification.
