Memorial Day weekend is usually one of the busiest times for Summer trip in America. Although this year was stunted by the coronavirus pandemicU.S. travel stats rebounded slightly over Memorial Day weekend as regions continue to reopen and COVID-19 home stay restrictions lifted. Experts say there are signs that the upward trend may continue over the course of the summer travel season.

The holiday weekend was the biggest day for Air travel since the coronavirus crisis in the US, according to the TSAThe number of air travelers passing the checkpoints at the airport reached a pandemic high of 348,673 passengers on Friday, May 22. The number of passengers on Thursday and Monday of the long weekend was also well above the 300,000 mark.

These numbers are a significant improvement on the year’s air traffic low on April 14, when TSA reported a passenger throughput of just 87,000. However, compared to last year’s Memorial Day numbers, there is still a huge gap in the demand for travel. In 2019, nearly 2.8 million travelers took to the skies on the Friday of the holiday weekend.

As the virus continues, airlines are still reducing the number of routes they operate and the current number of scheduled domestic flights remains small. As of May 25, scheduled flights within the US were still almost 74 percent lower than the previous year OAG data.

“The improvement in [air passenger] The throughput was modest, but still on the up, “said Helane Becker, airline analyst at Cowen, in a recent report. “As Tourist attractions and states openWe are confident that the summer trends will improve. “Becker assumes that the number of passengers could reach around 400,000 per day by August.

JP Morgan analysts also forecast a “gradual recovery” in US domestic air traffic over the next few weeks. “With many US states reopening and easing certain mobility restrictions, there could be a visible reallocation of domestic flight capacity in the coming weeks,” the company said in a report on Tuesday. “However, we note that there are still real concerns that some states may reopen too quickly, which could increase the risk of a large second wave of infections.”

Car trips also saw a slight bump over the vacation. According to travel data firm Arrivalist, there was a 48.5 percent increase in road traffic on the Friday and Saturday of Memorial Day weekend compared to the previous weekend. Trips of 250 miles or more also rose to pre-eruption levels. “We’re seeing a lot of road trip activity that we haven’t seen since the COVID-19 pandemic,” Cree Lawson, founder and CEO of Arrivalist, said in a statement Tuesday. “The travel patterns were very different from place to place, but the level of activity is reminiscent of earlier spring break.” The Kayak travel search site also reported searches Rental car over the holiday weekend it rose by 65 percent week after week.

Despite these improvements, this year’s Memorial Day weekend trip was still one of the lowest in history and, according to the AAA 2009, was able to offset a slump after the great recession for the fewest registered travelers. That year, 2.1 million people traveled by plane and 26.4 million people by car over the weekend. In fact, stats for 2020 have been forecast to be so low that AAA hasn’t released Memorial Day travel forecasts for the first time in 20 years.

However, the agency has reported minor improvements in travel bookings for Domestic travel. “Americans are taking this first step toward their next trip from the comfort of their homes by searching for vacation options and speaking with travel agents,” said Paula Twidale, senior vice president of AAA Travel, in a press release. “We see Americans show a love and inspiration for exploring all that our country has to offer once it is safe to travel.”

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