It was the Philadelphia International Airport’s busiest Thanksgiving since before the pandemic, with record-breaking travel numbers also seen nationwide this holiday.
The airport saw 42,616 people travel through TSA checkpoints on Sunday, Nov. 26. That’s a 15 percent increase from the 37,118 that passed through after Thanksgiving 2022, writes Emma Dooling for Philadelphia Business Journal.
The airport hasn’t fully recovered. Those numbers are still 6.5 percent below individuals screened that same day in 2019.
Nationwide, TSA reported 2.9 million people at airports on Sunday, Nov. 26, the busiest day of air travel in TSA’s history.
PHL reported a “steady stream of travelers” over the 12 days of the Thanksgiving holiday period.
Passenger numbers for the year are generally up at PHL. Its annual passenger volume in 2022 was 25.2 million, 24 percent below the 33 million it saw in pre-pandemic 2019.
So far in 2023, from January through September, the airport processed more than 21 million travelers and will likely surpass its 2022 numbers adding in the months yet to be reported in 2023.
PHL CEO Atif Saeed expects airport visitation to recover to monthly 2019 levels in late 2025.
Find out more about the airport’s busiest Thanksgiving since 2019 in the Philadelphia Business Journal.
