The TSA said Friday’s travel broke a record set in November of nearly 2.91 million air passengers screened.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said it screened 2.95 million airline passengers on Friday, the highest number ever on a single day.
The record travel coincides with the Memorial Day weekend that marks the beginning of the U.S. summer travel season. Last week, a group representing major U.S. airlines forecast record summer travel with airlines expected to transport 271 million passengers, up 6.3% from last year.
The TSA said Friday’s travel broke a record set in November of nearly 2.91 million air passengers screened. Five of the 10 busiest ever travel days have been since May 16, the agency said.
It’s pretty natural not to reserve seats on shinkansen, because you can find seats unless you are travelling at peak hours (and there are trains every 20 minutes or better)
The travel time to and from airport, and the baggage+security easily eats into the 1.5 hour savings. Same day fare on shinkansen remains constant, unlike 30k+ that flights demand.
On shinkansen, you have lots of leg room compared to LCC seats. There’s also enough space to move, talk and option to reconfigure the seats for a group of 4 or 6 travelers. There’s cell connectivity (and decent wifi onboard) so you don’t have to pay through your nose for in flight WiFi. The toilets are spacious. There’s dedicated place to talk on the phone. Less noisy and fewer bumps than a flight.
This makes the bullet trains really attractive for business and family travels (with kids). You don’t need to plan beforehand and there’s less inconvenience compared to flight. Moreover, the cost also balances out if you’re traveling to a smaller city with poor air connectivity.
These kind of options actually allow spur of the moment travels over such distances.
I know plenty of people who plan and use bus and flights due to the cost benefit, but also tons of people prefer the hassle free travel on shinkansen