The number of people screened at TSA checkpoints plummeted
to less than 624,000 thousand on March 19, just 25% of the total screened on
the same day a year earlier.
Thursday was also the third consecutive day that total TSA
screenings (passengers and aircraft crew members) were less than 1 million.
Prior to March 17, the TSA had screened less than a million
people just once since May 2004. That came on Feb. 1, 2011, when a blizzard
caused more than 6,000 flight cancellations in North America.
TSA screening numbers dropped from 1.51 million people on
March 15 to 785,000 on March 18, before hitting 624,000 on March 19.