Worst Recovery Ever: To Soothe Investor Pain, Government Agency TSA Hypes Airline Stocks in Chilling PR Stunt
Our dear stock jockeys drove up airline stocks this morning after the TSA said in a press release – reported by the gushing media – that it “screened over 1 million passengers Sunday, representing the highest number of passengers screened at TSA checkpoints since March 17, 2020,” and that it “screened 6.1 million passengers at checkpoints nationwide during the week (Mon., Oct. 12 through Sun., Oct. 18).
That weekly volume also represents the highest weekly volume for TSA since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
OK, that wasn’t “6.1 million” but actually 6.01 million, according to the TSA’s own daily figures. But fine, a typo by some underling. Happens to me too. We won’t quibble over typos. And the media that reported on this didn’t add up the numbers either, but reprinted the typo. OK, happens.
But there was zero numerical context, such as the comparison with the same period last year. And this context that the TSA failed to discuss, and that the media then failed to mention, is still unchanged-horrible.
For that week the TSA hyped – the least-worst week “since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic” – passenger traffic remained 64.5% below where it had been last year. And, despite TSA hype, it wasn’t even the least-worst week, as we’ll see in a moment.
Nowhere could you see in the TSA’s PR announcement that, into the eighth month of the crisis now, passenger traffic for the week that the TSA hyped was still down 64.5% from the same period last year.
Nor could you see in the TSA’s PR announcement that it wasn’t even the least-worst week, that in fact the least-worst week had been a month ago, which the TSA makes that clear in its own daily figures of passenger throughput. It didn’t try to hide it. It just forgot to mention it, as any good PR stunt would.
The chart below shows the seven-day moving average of TSA checkpoint screenings this year (red) and last year (black). Last year, screenings surged after Labor Day as business travel took off following the summer calm, and as people with no kids in school started traveling. This happens every year, normally.
But it didn’t happen this year. The last data point, the average of the seven days through October 18, covers the week the TSA hyped, and it’s down 64.5% from the same period last year:
https://hongkong.asiaxpat.com/Utility/GetImage.ashx?ImageID=7349752f-6428-4cee-9a41-d793b959b1a2&refreshStamp=0