It's all but axiomatic that no business can stay in business if its number of customers and, therefore, its revenues, fall by a whopping 87% on a year-over-year basis. Yet data from the Transportation Security Administration show that is exactly the situation in which U.S. airlines now find themselves.

On Tuesday only 279,018 people - not all of whom were even air travelers - were cleared through TSA security checkpoints at U.S. airports. On the same day last year, more than 2.15 million people passed through those very same checkpoints. That's an 87.1% drop. And it represents the lowest TSA checkpoint throughput since the TSA began reporting its daily throughput totals.

Transportation Security Administration daily airport checkpoint throughput totals since March 4 reveal a dramatic and swift collapse in demand for air travel vs. demand on the corresponding days in 2019. — Photo by AIRINSIGHTSTransportation Security Administration daily airport checkpoint throughput totals since March 4 reveal a dramatic and swift collapse in demand for air travel vs. demand on the corresponding days in 2019. — Photo by AIRINSIGHTS
Transportation Security Administration daily airport checkpoint throughput totals since March 4 reveal a dramatic and swift collapse in demand for air travel vs. demand on the corresponding days in 2019. — Photo by AIRINSIGHTS

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