Sunday after Thanksgiving travel sets new TSA record

Travel in the U.S. on the Sunday after Thanksgiving broke a record this year, the Transportation and Security Administration said. 

The TSA said it screened nearly 3.1 million people at security checkpoints nationwide on Dec. 1, setting a new record. 

It’s the most people screened in a single day in TSA’s 23-year history, the agency said, and is only one of two days to ever top 3 million passengers. 

The second-busiest day was July 7, 2024, also a Sunday after a holiday. The record was broken by about 74,000 people. 

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A winter storm affecting much of the Great Lakes area and Mideast disrupted travel this weekend. Hundreds of thousands of travelers were delayed or had their flights canceled. 

Airlines canceled about 120 U.S. flights — not an unusually high number — and more than 6,800 flights were delayed, according to FlightAware. 

The largest numbers of delays were at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.