MSP Airport sees holiday travel surge as TSA reports record-breaking day

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (FOX 9) – The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport saw a surge in travelers for the Thanksgiving holiday, and while the travel rush didn’t break any records for the airport itself, the Transportation and Security Administration reported its busiest day ever on Sunday.  

What to know

TSA announced the Sunday after Thanksgiving was the busiest travel day on record. On Dec. 1, nearly 3.1 million people were screened at airports across the U.S., surpassing the previous record set in July by nearly 74,000 passengers, according to a post on X. 

Areas across the country saw holiday travel disruptions due to the weather. A winter storm swept through the Great Lakes area and much of the northeast over the weekend, causing delayed and canceled flights for hundreds of thousands of travelers. Though there was still a record number of travelers after the holiday.

MSP Airport travel

While the holiday rush didn’t break any records at MSP Airport, a spokesperson with the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) told FOX 9 that Sunday was the busiest day before or after Thanksgiving, with 49,217 travelers getting screened. 

Airport officials previously predicted its holiday travel activity would peak on Nov. 27 and Dec. 1, with over 49,000 people expected to be screened each day. 

While official numbers have not yet been released, officials predicted a minimum of 468,000 people would be screened through security checkpoints from Thursday, Nov. 21, to Tuesday, Dec. 2 – more than 10% over the nearly 423,000 screened in 2023. 

The busiest travel day at MSP Airport so far this year was on Oct. 17, with 56,550 people getting screened, according to airport officials. That’s also the second-busiest day on record for MSP Airport, after Feb. 5, 2018, (the day after the Super Bowl), when a total of 60,883 people went through security checkpoints at MSP.