2.3 million people screened by tsa at airports across the country. the wednesday before thanksgiving. that is a new pandemic-era air travel record. the tsa predicted a record of 20 million people would fly for the thanksgiving holiday. and it seems like we re on pace to hit that. the tsa said this sunday after thanksgiving will likely be the biggest. pete muntean, cnn, reagan national airport. our thanks to pete muntean there. and if you are traveling this weekend, you may be running into severe delays as a series of storms crisscross the country. a fast-moving system is going to be bringing windy weather and gusty winds to many in the northwest and southeast. cnn s kyler moss is live in the cnn weather center. good morning. mainly in the great lakes to the new england area, we ll see the number rise. because we have two systems. number one is the system that s
ronna foroohar, thank you for your expertise, we appreciate it. thank you. as people head back home after thanksgiving, the tsa expects tomorrow will be its busiest day of the holiday travel period. the u.s. already hit a pandemic air travel record on wednesday. cnn s pete muntean has more on that. reporter: now begins the process of everybody who left town for thanksgiving coming home all at once. and the numbers have been really big. aaa projected that 48 million people would drive for the thanksgiving holiday. that number really not a far off from 2019 before the pandemic, only about a 3% difference. the bottom line here is that traffic is back, and so is the expense. the average price of a gallon of regular now around $3.40 nationwide. that s up about $1.30 from where we were this time last year. i talk to folks that told me expense could not get in the way
and that s after the u.s. already hit a new pandemic-era air travel record. that began wednesday as people started to head home. cnn s pete muntean has more. reporter: now, we begin the process of everything who left town for thanksgiving coming home all at once. the numbers are really big. aaa predicted 48 million people would drive for the thanksgiving holiday. that number not far from where we were in 2019, before the pandemic. the bottom line here is the traffic is back and so is the expense. the average price of a gallon of regular, now around $3.40 nationwide. that s up about $1.30 from where we were this time last year. i talked to motion at the maryland house travel plaza, and they said the expense would not get in the way of their thanksgiving plans because they shuttered so many of their plans last year. and the air travel, numbers there also really big.
travel numbers. cnn s pete muntean has more from regan national airport. reporter: christine, we have seen a new pandemic era air travel record. 2.3 million people screened at airports across the country on wednesday by the tsa. that number is significant. it s the highest we ve seen since march of 2020, double than this time a year ago. 88% where we were back in 2019. so these numbers keep going up and up, and the tsa anticipates that a total of 20 million people will take to the skies for thanksgiving. what s so interesting is there was a lot of concern airlines couldn t handle this onslaught of people. remember they got smaller during the pandemic. just check flight aware. no big cancellations either on tuesday or on wednesday. it seems that the airlines were ready for this and ahead of the tsa david pitkosky tells me they
unvaccinated member or are concerned about an older member. they re doing rapid tests on the way in. before you get around the table, you have to get a negative rapid test. so we have a new job, thanksgiving bouncer. nobody wants it, compete for my editor, justin green, who relishes the idea of being the bouncer for his family in lincoln, nebraska. mike allen, thank you so much. have a great holiday tomorrow. travel safe. great holiday to you. thanks to all of you for getting up way too early this wednesday morning. with thanksgiving tomorrow, we have so much to be thankful for, including all of you. morning joe starts right now. have a great holiday, everybody. this week in covid history. as we end november 2020, president butterball is for the birds. i hereby grant you a full pardon. victory, we ve won the war on thanksgiving. passengers in the united states have set a pandemic air