WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — More Americans are taking to the skies despite warnings from health officials against non-essential travel.
A spokesperson for the New England Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says passenger volume at T.F. Green Airport nearly doubled from January to March this year.
More than 74,000 people were screened to fly in March compared to about 39,000 in January.
At New England’s six major airports, the TSA says just over two million people were screened in the first three months of 2021.
The upward trend in passenger travel can also be seen nationwide. For more than 20 days in a row, the TSA has screened more than one million people daily at airports across the country.
The travel uptick has health officials warning of another potential surge in virus cases.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says the fact that we’re scaling up in vaccines is the reasoning behind the uptick in travel.
“Much more traveling is happening. I think people want to be done with this and as I mentioned, I too want to be done with this,” she said. “The thing that’s different this time is we actually have it in our power to be done with the scale of the vaccination and that will be so much slower if we have another surge to deal with as well.”
There are also reports of delays when it comes to getting a passport with the processing time being between 10 to 12 weeks.
