The busiest travel season of the year is about to begin: Almost 44 million people in the US are expected to unofficially kick off their summers by traveling on Memorial Day weekend, a 4.1% increase over 2019, according to the American Automobile Association. “We haven’t seen Memorial Day weekend travel numbers like these in almost 20 years,” said Paula Twidale, senior vice president of AAA Travel, in a May 13 release. “We’re projecting an additional one million travelers this holiday weekend compared to 2019.”
The Transportation Security Administration also said on Tuesday that it expects—for the first time—to screen more than 3 million passengers nationally in a single day “at some point this summer.”