3 million passengers a day: TSA smashes records in June as July 4 holiday could bring new peak
July 1, 2025
Passenger demand for air travel continues to surge as we move into the peak summer for the northern hemisphere. In the US, TSA throughput reached an all-time record on Sunday 22 June, when nearly 3.1 million passengers were screened nationwide.
In fact, the TSA has broken records for passenger screenings several times already in 2025. Many of those days occurred in the past few weeks.
As well as the busiest ever day on 22 June, TSA recorded seven other June dates when passenger traffic was at record levels. These included:
- 27 June: 2.99 million passengers
- 19 June: 2.98 million passengers
- 29 June: 2.96 million passengers
- 23 June: 2.95 million passengers
- 26 June: 2.93 million passengers
- 15 June: 2.89 million passengers
Only one other day in 2025 has broken the three million passenger benchmark – 23 May, when 3.01 million passengers passed through TSA checkpoints.
Historically, the first time more than three million passengers were screened was 7 July, 2024, when 3.01 million passed through checkpoints after the 4th of July holiday celebrations. Thanksgiving Sunday last year also saw just over three million, setting a new single-day record for the TSA.
Could the 4th of July 2024 see TSA records broken again?
Given the high demand for travel last month, it’s possible throughput could be even higher as we approach the Independence Day holiday.
The agency expects to screen over 18.5 million air passengers between 1 and 7 July, with the busiest day projected to be Sunday, 6 July. At present, the TSA estimates around 2.9 million travelers, but there’s a high potential for the numbers to break the three million barrier again.
Several airports have revealed their forecasts for 4th of July travel, and it’s not just the big hubs that are sagging under the weight of travel demand.
Houston airports, covering both George Bush (IAH) and Hobby (HOU) told the Houston Chronicle they expect up to 217,000 passengers per day on the peak travel days this week. The airports say this is 11% more than the same travel period last year.
Given the airports’ combined capacity of 63 million passengers a year, this is in excess of its average daily capacity limit of 172,603.
The FAA told Skift it is “preparing for the busiest Fourth of July week we’ve seen in 15 years,” with more than 300,000 flights expected.
Can air travel demand keep growing?
IATA’s latest data for May 2025 shows that global air travel demand remains strong, up 5.0% year-on-year, with capacity growth keeping pace and load factors steady at 83.4%.
However, in North America, growth has been moderate. Passenger demand declined 0.5% in May 2025, a sharp contrast with the double-digit growth we saw in 2024. IATA Director General Willie Walsh said this was “led by a 1.7% fall in the US domestic market.”
Conversely, markets in Asia-Pacific and Latin America continue to drive global growth.
APAC saw an increase in demand of 9.4%, with available seats only growing 7.1%. Consequently, load factors rose by 1.8% to a high of 83.8%.
In Latin America, demand was up 8.5% although capacity growth was even higher, up 9.6%, leading to a 0.8% reduction in load factor.
“Consumer confidence appears to be strong with forward bookings for the peak Northern summer travel season, giving good reason for optimism,” Walsh concluded.
