People took to the skies ahead of Christmas in greater numbers than in 2020, however driving pre-pandemic volumes.

On Christmas Eve, 1.7 million people had been screened at airport checkpoints, in accordance to TSA figures. The day right before 2.2 million have been.

Which is a 166 percent improve more than the identical two days in 2020, when the Centers for Illness Handle and Avoidance urged Us residents not to fly, on account of that winter’s COVID-19 surge.

This yr, officials have only asked that Us citizens be “prudent” with their journey strategies in the encounter of the Omicron variant.

The two-day whole is 76 per cent of air vacation quantity for those people days in 2019, the figures clearly show.

The new variant’s late-December surge has coincided with hundreds of flight cancellations, with United Airways blaming staffing shortages stemming from the spike. “The nationwide spike in Omicron scenarios this week has experienced a direct impact on our flight crews and the persons who operate our procedure,” a rep for the carrier reported.