WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. passenger airline traffic continues to rebound over historic lows after the coronavirus pandemic, but is still down sharply over 2019 levels.

The U.S. Transportation Department said Tuesday airlines carried 21.4 million passengers in July, up from 16.5 million in June, but still down 73% over July 2019 levels. On Friday, the Transportation Security Administration screened 968,673 people at airport checkpoints, the highest daily number since March 16 but still down more than 60% over 2019 levels.

(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Franklin Paul)