The U.S. Department of Transportation reported Monday that the number of passengers traveling on U.S. airlines rebounded last year, rising 83% compared to 2020.
But the preliminary data showed the airlines are still not back to their pre-pandemic levels.
The airlines carried more than 303 million passengers in 2021, 246 million fewer than in 2019, a gap of 27%.
At the height of pandemic-related air travel disruptions, the number of passengers carried by U.S. airlines was down by 60% overall.
The figure was worse for international flights, which were down 60% in 2020.
Some information for this report came from Reuters.
