There’s a simple, easy way to figure out to what degree America is returning to normal after the COVID lockdowns are lifted.
In March of this year, the TSA began publishing a list of passenger traffic at airports, with the corresponding day in 2019, one year before.
This includes everyone in the US who gets on a plane for any reason; to visit family in the US, to go on vacation overseas, to fly for business domestically or internationally, etc.
As you can see from the table below,
| Date | Total Travel Throughput | Total Travel Throughput (1 Year Ago – Same Weekday) |
| March 1, 2020 | 2,280,522 | 2,301,439 |
| March 9, 2020 | 1,909,363 | 2,378,673 |
| March 18, 2020 | 779,631 | 2,320,885 |
| April 14, 2020 | 87,534 | 2,208,688 |
| June 11, 2020 | 502,209 | 2,675,686 |
On March 1, at the beginning of the virus scare, traffic from year to year was about the same, down less than 1%.
Traffic began a rapid decline and by March 9 was down about 20%.
By March 18 the rout was on, with traffic year over year down by 75%.
The low point of traffic was on April 14, with about 87000 people traveling, down a mind-boggling 96%. At this point, US air traffic had pretty much ground to a halt.
Then it started a very gradual rise: on June 11 a milestone was reached, with over 500,000 travelers. But still down more than 80% from last year.
We’ve got a long way to go folks for a full recovery.
