Due to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), the U.S. and global aviation markets are facing a period of extraordinary uncertainty. At the height of the global pandemic in Spring 2020, nearly all passenger travel came to a standstill. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Agency (TSA) passenger screening data showed traveler throughput fell almost 97 percent across U.S. airports in mid-April. The pandemic also induced a deep U.S. and global economic recession, further increasing the uncertainty faced by the aviation industry.

How long the COVID-19 pandemic will last, how deep and how long the economic recession will go, and how quickly the economic recovery will progress are questions that will continue to persist in the aviation industry.

Unison has used TSA’s passenger screening data and the airlines’ advanced schedules to project the near-term trends of passenger traffic at U.S. airports.