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Spring break travel spike breaks pandemic records locally and nationwide

Austin’s airport recorded its busiest weekend on record since March 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic brought travel to a near halt.

AUSTIN, Texas — People are taking off from Austin’s airport at record numbers as spring break starts in the Lone Star State.

Nearly 50,000 people flew out in three days over the weekend and the parking garage reached capacity for about 10 hours on Saturday. It was the busiest weekend since March 2020.

The Transportation Security Administration at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport screened 17,361 flyers on Friday, March 12. That was the most since the exact same day last year, when TSA screened 17,396 flyers.

RELATED: TSA records highest passenger screenings since COVID-19 pandemic hit

Friday’s local data matched the national trend, when TSA screened 1,357,111 flyers at America’s airports.

Local spring break air travel data:

  • Friday, March 12: 17,361
  • Saturday, March 13: 14.620
  • Sunday, March 14: 15,695
  • Monday, March 15: 16,641

The days over the weekend were the top three busiest since March 2020, beating the holiday travel spike.

A June 2020 study by researchers at Ball State and Vanderbilt found that spring break travel may have fueled the spread of COVID-19 last March, based on GPS cell phone data from more than 7 million U.S. college students.

Even though the travel trends are breaking pandemic records, weekend travel throughput numbers were still down at least 40% compared to the same time pre-pandemic.

The health recommendations for protecting yourself while traveling have not changed. Even though Texas lifted its mask order, a federal mandate remains in effect that requires a face covering while at airports or on an airplane.

WATCH: Spring Break travel spike breaks pandemic records locally and nationwide 

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