KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Local and national data is showing an increase in travel in the U.S. as more people take flight through Kansas City and other major travel hubs.
According to the TSA, the country has seen 12 straight days of more than a million passenger screenings in American airports. The peak day was this past Sunday, with more than 1.5 million screenings.
"As the vaccinations continue to roll out, it does appear that there is a higher level of travel confidence than there has been in the last year and we're seeing airlines bringing back capacity," said Justin Meyer of the Kansas City Aviation Department.
KCI is also seeing this trend play out through its doors - from March 11-13, the airport experienced three straight days of at least 11,000 passenger screenings per day, a best since the pandemic began. According to the airport, that's about two-thirds of the normal traffic prior to last March.
Meyer also said airline scheduling and projections for the months ahead show greater confidence in more demand for air travel.
"Call it like a big net theory right where you throw the net out, see where the interest is, maybe there's a lot more demand to Florida or as we've seen kind of the mountains and deserts, the airlines really said, hey this seems to be working," he explained. "Someone at one of the airlines that I was talking with on the network planning side said they really expect summer of 2021 to be the Maine and Montana summer. Everyone's looking for kind of these outdoor escapes, but certainly not crowded so we've certainly seen that in terms of where airlines are adding capacity."
Spring Break travel is helping numbers rise.
"Earlier this month, that big push into the beginning of Spring Break, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we were seeing load factors north of 90% or the percent of seats filled on aircraft departing Kansas City," Meyers said. "So we are seeing a lot of positive indicators regarding demand, in addition to a lot of indicators that are positive as to airlines choosing to provide the capacity needed to meet that demand."
The CDC said Monday at a press conference that non-essential travel is still not recommended, even as vaccination rates increase nationwide.
Recent trends show that Americans are still on the move through airports, where mask requirements and social distancing remain a part of the new travel experience.
"Some of the airlines that are doing business here in Kansas City are saying that they are expecting to get back to kind of a cash neutral basis by the end of this month," Meyers added. "Which is really staggering considering the losses the air carriers have endured over the last year."
