A record 26.8 million people are expected to fly over Thanksgiving

Two airplanes.
(Image credit: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

This Thanksgiving, 26.8 million people are projected to go through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, up 4 percent from last year, the TSA said Wednesday.

The agency is expecting this record number of travelers to fly from Nov. 22 through Dec. 2, with 2.7 million taking off on the day before Thanksgiving. In a statement, TSA acting Deputy Administrator Patricia Cogswell said 2019 saw "our busiest summer ever," and new technology will be introduced this holiday season, including scanners that can take better images of what's inside a person's bag.

Cogswell also said TSA agents will soon have new devices that allow them to quickly identify passengers, without having to place their photo IDs under lamps or lights, ABC News reports.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.