Travelling on a budget a thing of the past?

It has been three years since the global COVID-19 pandemic was declared, grounding air travel and shocking the industry.

According to local Al Valente, owner of Valente Travel, pre-pandemic travel demand levels have finally returned.

“This year I think is the first full year we're back to normal and then some,” he said.

Many left Windsor-Essex for March break.

“The demand is certainly there and we're seeing it in the numbers,” Valente explained. “We've got several groups that have gone for March Break this year.”

Mark Galvin, CEO of Windsor Airport, said flights have been full.

“Certainly Sunwing down to three Cuban destinations [and] into Cancun, so we've been seeing pretty good full flights there,” he said.

With more flights out of Windsor coming later this year, Galvin said there is a lot of pent up demand.

“That's our job is to try and connect people to the places they want to go and to engage our airline partners to try and offer those routes, and if they become successful that only helps us to leverage that into future destinations,” Galvin explained.

With March break underway, the focus now switches to the spring months, which are typically a slower booking period.

“We've got even more so bigger demand in the spring as well over previous years,” Valente said.

Melanie Harding, a travel consultant at Valente Travel, said it did not take long for the switch to happen.

“That took about a minute,” said Harding. “There's people that still haven't seen family members in Europe, so it's booking.”

Would be travellers are experiencing sticker shock, but the new reality is brought on by factors such as inflation, the price of gas and staffing issues.

“We're too expensive but we only relay what airlines give us so it's definitely...the airlines. Seats are limited,” Harding said.

Valente does not see demand slowing down and advises travelers to do their homework before picking a destination.

“I think the challenges as an industry is making sure, trying to decipher which hotels, which companies came out of COVID well. It’s important to get a professional advisor to help you with that sort of thing,” Valente said.

He added, “You've seen casualties in some airlines. I know some airlines are having difficulty at the moment but you do really have to watch who you're travelling with, use a reputable company and go from there.”