TSA Sets New Records for Number of Passengers Screened in a Single Day

To say TSA screeners had a busy week would be an understatement. Granted it was going into a holiday weekend, screeners in two New York City airports set new passenger records.

On Thursday, TSA agents at New York's La Guardia (LGA) airport screened a record-setting 59,698 passengers in a single day. This surpassed the old record set in 2018 by nearly 1,000 passengers, according to a press release from the agency.

The TSA’s Federal Security Director for LaGuardia Airport, Robert Duffy, said in the release that "officers expected a larger than usual throughput and they remained focused on security procedures to ensure that travelers reached their destinations safely." Duffy added that he expects the remainder of this spring and into summer to "continue seeing a high volume of passengers". He advises travelers to get to the airport a full two hours before their flight and listen to any guidance TSA officers provide at the checkpoints to keep the flow of passengers "operating smoothly”.

Thursday was also a busy day for the TSA over at Newark Liberty International (EWR) in New Jersey, where a new airport record was set for screening passengers as well. Agents at EWR saw a record 78,811 passengers screened, with about one-third of those passengers screened between the hours of 4am and 9am. The new record sets the bar almost 2,000 passengers above the previous record set back in June of 2018. Even with the high volume of travelers, the longest wait time reported was 27 minutes, with the overall average for the day coming in at around 12 minutes.

With the summer travel season coming up, the TSA won't be slowing down anytime soon. These new records should be a signal to anyone flying that it's going to be a busy summer, so give yourself plenty of time to pass through security at the airport. If you want to hedge yourself against dealing with long lines or long wait times, take a look at TPG's guides to CLEAR, TSA Pre-Check and Global Entry. These programs can help make clearing security much easier and go much faster.

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Featured Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images