The unofficial end of the summer saw U.S. travelers piling into airports at a record pace.
According to Transportation Security Administration data, there were nearly 10.4 million travelers screened at airport security checkpoints from Friday through Monday of the Labor Day holiday weekend, the most recorded in the agency's 24-year history. This was an increase of 3.3% over the same four-day period last year.
On Aug. 29, there were 2.97 million travelers screened, the most ever on the Friday prior to Labor Day and the 15th busiest day in TSA history. Since May 23, eight of the top 10 busiest days in TSA screening history have occurred. The agency is projecting it will break its all-time annual passenger volume record this year.
“As air travel continues to reach record high trajectories, TSA is fully prepared to meet the growing demand by maintaining a close partnership with our aviation industry partners,” said Adam Stahl, acting deputy administrator of the TSA.
Jan Freitag, national director of hospitality analytics at CoStar Group, said the gaudy numbers represent the resiliency of the leisure traveler.
"Despite higher inflation and macroeconomic uncertainty, the strong travel counts indicate that American consumers value travel to visit family and friends or to simply get away," he said.
Hotel performance over the same time frame, however, was disappointing, he said. Occupancy was up 0.1% year over year on Friday and down 0.6% on Saturday, and average daily rate was up 1% on Friday and 0.2% on Saturday.
"The disconnect between higher flier counts and flat occupancy implies that travelers find accommodation elsewhere, be it with friends and family, alternative accommodations, or cruises. All eyes are now on the fall meeting season to see if midweek TSA throughput counts translate to higher occupancies for hotels," Freitag said.