Holiday travel surges at El Paso & U.S. airports despite pandemic
EL PASO, Texas -- Millions of Americans are traveling ahead of Christmas and New Year’s, despite pleas from public health experts that they stay home to avoid fueling the raging coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 320,000 nationwide.
People at the El Paso International Airport on Wednesday said they thought about their travel plans and found a way to rationalize it. Some travelers, though, expressed concern that their flights were packed and offered little room for social distancing.
More than 5 million people passed through the nation’s airport security checkpoints between Friday and Tuesday, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
That is down around 60% from the same time last year. But it amounts to around a million passengers per day, or about what the U.S. saw in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, when some Americans likewise disregarded warnings and ended up contributing to a nationwide surge that fortunately didn't occur in El Paso.
Overall, the AAA projected that about 85 million people will travel between Wednesday and Jan. 3, most of them by car. That would be a drop of nearly a one-third from a year ago but still a big number in the middle of a pandemic.
