The Astonishing Drop in Air Travel, Visualized

Passenger numbers have collapsed, and they probably won’t recover for the summer travel season.

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Almost 2.5 million people passed through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints on the second Sunday in April 2019. One year later, that number was just 90,510.

Such a dramatic and unprecedented collapse in air passenger numbers bodes ill not just for the aviation and travel industries, but also for the wider global economy. Furthermore, even if rates of Covid-19 infections begin to decline, individuals may shun air travel and countries may establish strict biosecurity controls — unless and until a coronavirus vaccine is developed and adopted worldwide.