ARLINGTON, Va. — Airports saw a major rush on Sunday, in what’s expected to be the busiest travel day in a year and a half.
But, travelers are heading home as a new variant gains traction. They checked in for a travel rush that looks downright pre-pandemic, the only difference: the safety precautions.
"After going to college and wearing a mask 24/7, continuing to wear it while flying isn’t a huge issue to me," said Nicholas Schwalb of D.C. "It feels normal."
TSA officials prepared for this biggest travel day of the year after Wednesday saw air travel rates of more than 2.3 million people. That's more than 20 times the amount who flew on April 12, 2020, which was the pandemic's low point of 86,000 people screened through TSA. It was the highest number since then.
Rates of travel have been high all week, many passengers we spoke with said this wasn’t the first time they traveled but this was a significant holiday to spend with family since they're now vaccinated.
"I'm vaccinated and boosted," said Laure Kouyoudjian of Silver Spring. "But we’ll see, we’re not sure if it's going to work with the new variant that’s the concern."
Amidst such a heavy week of travel, growing concerns about the Omicron variant, as more cases were detected in Europe and the U.S. imposed travel restrictions on several African countries.
The news is coming after a week that looked optimistic for the travel industry but may now bring it up short again.
"It's coming," said Kouyoudjian. "So yes, I think right now it's still okay. I don’t know if in three or four weeks I'll feel the same way. But, definitely not traveling to Europe at this point."
