Air travel is finally higher than a year ago — but it's still far below normal

The US airline industry hit a dubious milestone this week: For the first time since the pandemic began, air travel is up from a year ago. That's a positive sign for battered airlines and a potentially worrying sign to health experts. But it's also an incredibly low hurdle to clear. About 1.1m people passed through US airport screening on Wednesday, according to the TSA, up from the 954,000 who were screened same day last year. That increase is still a heavily depressed level, as it's only 52% of the traffic the same day in pre-pandemic 2019. "We'll have to see what the uptick really is," said Nick Calio, CEO of Airlines for America, the US industry's trade group. "Right now it's looking like it's going to be better. But you have to keep it in context." For airlines just to break even, Calio said, they need at least 70% of normal traffic.<br/>