Travelers returning from Memorial Day trips fill Atlanta airport

The number of people screened at Hartsfield-Jackson checkpoints reached 111,000 last Thursday as travelers set out on their journeys. This is the most in the airport’s history, surpassing the previous record of 104,174 on the Monday after the Atlanta Super Bowl in 2019, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

The TSA initially expected Friday to be the busiest day of the holiday weekend at the Atlanta airport, but ended up screening a total of 109,960 passengers that day, just shy of Thursday’s total.

Traffic volumes at airport security checkpoints nationwide hit a record number Friday, when the TSA said it screened 2.95 million people. This broke the previous record set on November 26 last year, the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

Many travelers who left on weekend trips last Thursday and Friday are now returning home.

In Hartsfield-Jackson, around 7 a.m. Tuesday, wait times at the North National Terminal checkpoint were estimated at 41 minutes, while at the main checkpoint the wait time was 27 minutes . The wait time at the south checkpoint for PreCheck members was 15 minutes.