More Americans are flying than ever before. Has California air travel kept up?
More than three million travelers passed through American airports on Sunday, according to the U.S Department of Homeland Security.
That’s the most plane passengers that the Transportation Security Administration has screened since the agency was founded in November 2001, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said in a July 8 news release.
After air travel dropped for a couple of years following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, more Americans than ever before are taking to the skies.
However, a total of 25 states have returned to pre-pandemic levels of air travel yet.
They include California.
The Golden State is home to several international airports — including Sacramento International Airport, which is undergoing a $1.3 billion renovation — as well as number of regional hubs.
Here’s how airplane travel in California has changed over the past few years, according to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation on the number of passengers flying to or from a given airport.
How did COVID-19 affect airport traffic in California?
In California, airport traffic decreased 66% in 2020 from the year before, according to federal transportation data.
About 73.4 million passengers flew to or from a California airport in 2020, compared to 217.8 million passengers in 2019.
With distribution of the coronavirus vaccine beginning in December 2020, travel restrictions began to be relaxed and more people started traveling again.
Has plane travel in California recovered from pandemic?
Three years later, airport traffic has bounced back in California — but it still isn’t back to pre-pandemic levels.
In 2023, California’s airport traffic was down 8.1% since 2019.
About 200.2 million people passed through California airports that year.
“Record-breaking travel spurred by our nation’s strong economy (is) expected to continue in the months ahead,” Mayorkas said in the Homeland Security news release.
This story was originally published July 11, 2024 at 11:05 AM with the headline "More Americans are flying than ever before. Has California air travel kept up?."