Summer Travel: Americans will take 157 million fewer trips

PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) — AAA is forecasting a 15 percent drop in travel from July to September, compared to last year.

The company says Americans will take 700 million trips in the next three months. That’s down 157 million trips from the projected before the pandemic.

On Sunday, TSA reported more than 633,000 travelers.

It’s the highest number of travelers since March 18, but on the same day last year, there were 2.6 million travelers.

“The load factor, in other words, the percentage of seats that are available that are actually taken, is back up over 55 percent now, but on a reduced number of flights,” said Gene Olson, director of airports at Peoria International Airport.

Olson says travel is slowly starting to return but people will still see mask requirements and disinfecting precautions.

“The airlines are still maintaining the, you know, vastly accelerated cleaning and disinfecting, and some of them have even said they’re going to maintain that even after this crisis is completely over,” said Olson.

Starting Thursday, passengers on Allegiant will be required to wear face masks. There are exceptions for people under the age of two or with existing medical conditions.