Regina International Airport is anticipating a hectic Easter holiday weekend and spring break as people try to get away for one last family visit or vacation before the summer season arrives.
Justin Reves, the manager of customer experience and marketing with the airport, said he expects the busy trend from Christmas and Family Day Weekend to continue on Easter weekend.
"What we've seen in the last couple of holidays, including Christmas and the Family Day long weekend...things got very, very busy with basically every flight being full," Reves said.
"So I assume given the long winter and the chilly temperatures even we're seeing now late into March, that we're going to have another really busy travel season."
Reves said there are a couple different factors at play right now which is leading to people wanting to travel more.
"This winter, between some poor weather and some really poor times, as well as challenges that Sunwing faced and people kind of redirected and found other ways, or had to make some different plans. And so they moved them around to times when they had days off," Reves said.
"So yeah, we're definitely seeing a lot of demand for travel. We are hoping to continue to see just more and more flights to more and more places though to get people wherever it is they're looking to go."
Reves said the flight prices for the Easter time period are trending upwards. He said whenever flight prices are high, that means the planes are usually full.
He also touched on which locations are popular at this time of year.
"It's really good to see this year that we have Phoenix, Vegas, Orlando, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta with WestJet as well as a little bit of service with Sunwing going right through mid-April and all the way until the end of April," Reves said. "You know most of our winter destinations are those hot sun destinations we still service across Canada."
"But as we flip into summer time, we get a lot more service across Canada and then the service south of the border essentially kind of cuts off as people in the summertime are not looking to go so far south. But we do have a really strong schedule of flights right through the end of April."
Reves also reminded travellers to try to get to the airport early, and that flights can often be delayed not necessarily by bad weather in Regina, but by bad weather in other cities where the plane is coming from.
There are more upgrades planned for the airport over the next year as well, he said.
"So we're just looking forward to welcoming people travelling for the end of their winter holidays. And then in the summertime," Reves said.