United's Houston Hub Sees Huge Passenger Surge as Summer Begins

June 4, 2021

Jun. 4—Summer travel season is upon us, and Houstonians are wasting no time soaring to new heights. Literally.

The Transportation Security Administration screened more than 7.1 million people over the course of Memorial Day weekend, per KHOU-11's Marcelino Benito.

"Thru the weekend we thought it was going to be 32,000 passengers a day, but we recently hit 34,000 and that's great for the Houston hub," said United's VP of Airport Operations Phil Griffith, as reported by Benito.

Griffith noted that with COVID-19 guidelines and restrictions being a lot more relaxed than they were this time a year ago — not to mention the amount of people who are now fully vaccinated — everyone is looking forward to the opportunity to travel and spend time with their friends and family.

United Airlines operations at George Bush Intercontinental Airport are nearly back to normal as a result of the surge in passengers, with United flying up to 80 percent of its pre-pandemic schedule out of Houston.

Total bookings are already up 214 percent over 2020's numbers, per Benito, and the Houston hub is only going to get busier as the summer months progress. (If you're contributing to these numbers, I love that for you.)

With travel season looking rather promising, at least 100 new flights could be soaring from United very (very) soon, per Benito.

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