Projections that Christmas air traffic would surpass pre-Covid levels fell well short thanks to widespread disruption.
Over 1.7 million people were screened at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints on Christmas Eve, TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein tweeted. This is a massive 800,000 fewer than in 2019.
It was mostly down to thousands of Christmas weekend flight cancelations at the last minute, caused by crew shortages due to the Omicron surge. Overall, nearly 6,000 flights globally were cancelled between 24-26 December.
