The federal government’s travel advisory didn’t do much to stop Canadians travelling internationally this Christmas, with 742,700 residents flying back into the country this December.
The festive period saw more traffic in and out of the country than at any point throughout the pandemic thus far. The highest volume was unsurprisingly between Dec. 27 and Jan. 2, with 215,665 Canadian citizens returning from abroad.
This is the rebound we hoped and expected to see in the industry, with public sentiment clearly shifting in the last few weeks. The success of Canada’s vaccination program along with the milder symptoms associated with the Omicron variant appear to have given many residents the confidence to shoulder some of the risks associated with travel.
Whilst we are clearly moving in the right direction, there is still very much a disparity between the current volume of Canadians travelling internationally with the levels at only about two thirds of what we saw in 2019.
Thankfully, it does look like Omicron may soon be behind us; according to Chief Medical Officer Dr. Theresa Tam, there are “early indications that infections may have peaked at the national level.”
It is important to note, that just because you have recovered from Covid, you may not necessarily test negative on your pre-flight PCR test. So, if you want to get ahead of the game, please get in touch with your travel agent to make sure every precaution possible has been taken to make sure you don’t experience any Covid cancelation headaches.
