US: The number of people travelling by plane has hit a 10-year low

The number of people travelling by plane has hit a 10-year low as the aviation industry reels from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, the TSA says. Meanwhile, airport security checkpoints screened fewer than 125,000 people on Thursday, less than 5% of the 2.4m people, including both passengers and crewmembers, who passed through TSA checkpoints on the equivalent day last year. Air travel is normally busy during this spring break period, but the pandemic has choked off demand. Airlines have reduced their capacity by about 56%, according to Airlines for America. It said passenger counts are down about 92% -- and "passenger traffic is falling much faster than they [airlines] can cut capacity." Airlines will keep scheduling flights to move cargo and satisfy government requirements linked to the stimulus law. Low-cost carriers are experiencing 10% of usual traffic, according to the National Air Carrier Association, which represents them. In March, TSA screened just under half of the passengers it did in March 2019 -- with the numbers slightly above last year's level toward the beginning of the month, during a flurry of travel as people returned home, and dropped to percentages in the single digits in the final days of March.<br/>