‘Revenge Travel’: TSA Sets Screening Record With Almost 40 Million Expected to Travel on Memorial Day Weekend

Travelers at JFKAirport ahead of Memorial day weekend on May 28, 2021. (Angela Weiss/AFP, Getty)

The lockdown of America is over, and people are leaving the house not just to work or shop or wait in gas lines, but to get on the road and visit family, friends, and destinations as the massive “revenge travel” summer begins.

Although the weekend won’t break any long-term records, it’s already smashing the last year’s numbers. The TSA’s screening of passengers at airports is massively up, with almost 2 million through the checkpoints on Friday. It’s by far the most air travel since the pandemic began, as Axios reported.

LAX alone put 78,000 travelers through on Friday, and similar reports from Texas and D.C. show that travelers are pushing numbers close to 2019 levels. A vast change from the last year.

As Axios notes, AAA projects almost 40 million people on the go over the weekend, whether by air, car, sea, horse, foot, or UFO.

The TSA and individual airports have urged patience. With incidents of outbursts both in the air and on the ground becoming viral videos frequently of late, it’s good advice.

“Revenge travel” – that is, the impulse to get “revenge” on Covid, on lockdowns, on the very idea of being stuck at home – is expected to drive a major summer of Americans being out and about. It’s about time. Count me in.

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