The Fourth of July holiday period broke records for travel, despite flight delays and cancelations.
Close to 10.7 million people passed through U.S. airport checkpoints Thursday through Sunday, according to the Transportation Security Administration, which said travel records were broken at airports across the country. A further 2.3 million passengers were screened Monday and just more than 2 million Tuesday.
Friday was the busiest air travel day in history for the TSA, as it screened more than 2.88 million passengers, beating the previous record set on the Sunday before Thanksgiving in 2019.
Flight delays and cancelations were at their worst last week in the run-up to the holiday, and although there’s been some improvement disruption has continued into this week. More than 4,000 flights within, into, or out of the U.S. were delayed Tuesday, and 458 were canceled, according to flight-tracker FlightAware.
On Monday, more than 5,000 flights were delayed, and on Sunday the figure was 7,700.
Operations appeared to be running smoothly early Wednesday, although that could change as it is set to be one of the busiest travel days of the holiday season.
Airline stocks were unaffected by the latest bout of disruption, moving higher over the past week buoyed by
Delta Air Lines
(ticker: DAL), which issued a guidance hike at the end of last month. The
U.S. Global JETS
exchange-traded fund has climbed more than 7% since the beginning of last week.
For investors, the big question regarding travel stocks heading into the summer period was whether demand would stay strong, or whether a feared consumer spending pullback would emerge.
The record-breaking July Fourth holiday, hot on the heels of a bumper Memorial Day travel weekend, is providing a clear answer that demand remains robust.
As long as the sector can avoid more disruption as Americans return home after the holiday, Delta may not be the only carrier raising its guidance ahead of second-quarter earnings season.
Write to Callum Keown at [email protected]
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