(NEW YORK) — The kickoff for the summer travel season is in full swing, as millions of travelers take to the roads and the skies for Memorial Day weekend.
Over the holiday, 2.1 million passengers per day are expected to go through security checkpoints at airports nationwide, according to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The volume could exceed pre-pandemic levels, TSA said.
“Passengers should expect airports to be extremely busy,” Robert Spinden, the federal security director at TSA, said in an interview with ABC News. “But we’re prepared.”
To meet the demand, Spinden said his agency has increased the use of overtime and is allowing officers that are in part-time status to convert to full-time. The agency is also “aggressively” recruiting new officers in preparation for the summer travel rush, he said.
Airlines are also gearing up for the busy travel weekend. United Airlines expects an average of 4,000 flights a day over the weekend, American Airlines says it will average 5,700 flights a day and Delta Air Lines is planning on 4,500 daily flights per day.
“We’ve been waiting on this moment in this weekend for two years,” Allison Ausband, chief customer experience officer and executive vice president at Delta, said in an interview with ABC News. “It kicks off the summer season, but for Delta people, it really kicks back that we are back to normal.”
The airline expects to fly approximately 2.5 million customers between Thursday and Monday — up 25% from last year. Ausband said domestic leisure travel has fully recovered from pandemic lows, and transatlantic travel continues to improve. The airline will service 275 destinations over the holiday weekend.
“In many ways, this is just sort of like a dry run for the summer because you’re expecting even more passengers after this?” asked ABC News transportation correspondent Gio Benitez.
“It is a dry run, but we want the dry run to go great this weekend…