The number of travelers flying to their destinations in recent days set a pandemic-era record, according to federal data, marking a busy but smooth Memorial Day weekend and start of the summer air travel season.
The Transportation Security Administration screened 2.74 million people Friday, the highest number since Thanksgiving weekend in 2019. The agency said it screened 9.8 million people over the four-day weekend, about 300,000 more than the same period in 2019.
The Federal Aviation Administration, meanwhile, said Thursday's 54,684 flights was the most on a single day since the beginning of the pandemic.
Airlines are under pressure to deliver a smooth season after a bumpy pandemic recovery marked by high rates of delayed and canceled flights. The TSA and FAA figures are an early sign of strong travel demand as summer arrives and an indication that the system is ready for heavy volumes of passengers, with few disruptions reported in recent days.
Airlines canceled less than 1% of flights each day between Thursday and Sunday, according to data from tracking service FlightAware. Less than 20% of flights arrived late.
The lower numbers also coincided with generally favorable weather across much of the country.
The industry has been under pressure from the Department of Transportation to improve its performance. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg tweeted Sunday that he was encouraged by limited flight disruptions over the weekend.
"Glad to see good performance so far this Memorial Day weekend as flight cancellation rates remain below 1%," he wrote.
The pandemic saw airlines shed workers as people stayed home. More than three years after the virus gripped the planet, air carriers are still dealing with the fallout, rebuilding employee bases and tuning operations for the pandemic era.
Last summer, with the effects of the coronavirus receding, people were eager to get back onto planes. But airlines often found themselves unprepared, leading to rolling waves of cancellations and frustrations for travelers.
The problems persisted into Christmas, with Southwest suffering a crippling meltdown that brought scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers.
That made last weekend, the start of the summer travel season, a key test. American Airlines, which has suffered at points in the recovery, said it didn't cancel a single flight between Wednesday and Saturday, and had to scrap only 13 regional flights Sunday.
The numbers "continue to show significant improvement compared to both 2022 and 2019," the airline said in a statement.
The potential for problems remains. Airlines have succeeded on key travel weekends in recent years, only to face disruptions on others. Meanwhile, a critical air traffic control facility in New York is badly understaffed.
While the FAA has been working with airlines on plans to mitigate the effects, it could still be a source of problems as the summer continues.