Air travel is getting off the ground again.
A year of coronavirus pandemic restrictions and precautions made airports into ghost towns. The 777.9 million people annually who had been taking off their shoes and separating their laptops from their carry-ons at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints slowed to a trickle.
On April 2, 2020, 130,000 were putting their seats and tray tables in the upright position nationwide — just 5.6% of the 2.4 million that had been flying the same day in 2019.
Protecting the airline industry was a big part of the federal CARES Act passed in March 2020 as airports became parking lots for most passenger jets. It was easy to wonder if people would ever get back to complaining about lost luggage and tight leg space.