As the summer travel season receded and ticket prices fell, the number of US airport security checks fell to its lowest level since May.
The number of passengers passing through security at domestic airports on Tuesday was 1.35 million, the lowest level since May 11, according to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
As students return to school, travel demand usually falls at the end of the summer. Airline executives such as Southwest Airlines and American Airlines warned last month that revenue or profits were expected to fall short of expectations because of weak flight bookings due to an increase in COVID-19 's delta variant.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), advised on Tuesday that people who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 should not travel during the Labor Day holiday.
Domestic ticket prices for most U. S. airlines fell in the week ended Aug. 27 compared with the previous week, according to a Deutsche Bank report.
For tickets purchased 21 days in advance, the average one-way domestic fares for Spirit Airlines and JetBlue Airlines fell by 30.6% within a week, to $51 and $183, respectively. Average domestic one-way fares for American Airlines fell nearly 23 per cent to $158, Delta Airlines fell more than 20 per cent to $150 and United Airlines fell more than 25 per cent to $199.
United said on Wednesday that it expected to transport 2 million passengers between Sept. 2 and Sept. 7, including the Labor Day weekend, about three times as many as last year, but still down from 2.6 million in the same period in 2019.