Windsor airport will soon be able to receive international flights

Airport officials and people in the travel industry are applauding the federal government’s decision to allow more airports, including Windsor International Airport, to once again receive international flights despite the fact that peak season is nearly over.

Currently, only 18 airports are permitted to receive flights from international destinations. However, travellers are able to fly from Windsor to one of those airports, then take a connecting flight to another country.

As of Feb. 28, Windsor International Airport will also be able to accept international flights.

“It’s a step in the right direction, we’ve been looking for this for a while,” says Mark Galvin, the CEO of Your Quick Gateway (YQG). “Sunwing is flying now, Porter is flying, Air Canada is flying and West Jet is planning to come back in their seasonal service.”

Galvin says there’s only one month left for Sunwing’s seasonal flights to the Caribbean, which Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens calls a missed opportunity to capitalize on peak season.

“It’s good that it’s being removed, it will (probably) have no bearing on our ability to attract springtime passengers, because that plane has left the tarmac, so to speak,” Dilkens says.

In 2019 YQG processed 383,000 travellers, making it a banner year.

YQG typically pays an annual dividend of one million dollars to city coffers.

“We really won’t know the true impact until we get to the end of the year,” the mayor says.

Despite this, travel agents predict a pent-up demand finally being met with supply will see people flocking to airports.

“All this from what I can see in the last virtually, 24 hours, is getting people who are sitting on the fence to book march break trips or even look into summer of 2022, just changed their whole attitude,” says Martin Firestone, the president of Travel Secure, a broker for travel insurance.

Firestone says the loosened testing requirements, the reduction of the federal travel advisory from ‘three to two’ and the fact that children under 12 will no longer have to quarantine upon return are other indicators that business will return to the battered travel and tourism industry.

”People have pent-up demand, they’re going to pay the prices and they’re going to get away,” Firestone says. “That’s going to have a lot of families getting out there and getting back and forth and not having to spend crazy amounts of PCR tests.”

Galvin says even though airport traffic has been down about 80 per cent during the pandemic, YQG staff has been busy looking for ways to boost the airport’s business model.

“We’re working on lots of things to hopefully bring more international destinations from YQG direct,” he says. “Travel is just another thing you do, and you take your mitigation measures and travel.”

“I think you can travel safely and people have been and I believe they’re ready to do so again.”