Air Travel Remains Low Amid Continued Uncertainty

MINNEAPOLIS -- During these frigidly cold days, many of us here in central Minnesota are looking at booking a spring break vacation -- or wishing we were.

Executive Editor at Minneapolis-based website ThriftyTraveler.com Kyle Potter says overall air travel remains low. He says the United States is still below one million travelers per day, compared to about 2.5 million at this time last year just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic beginning.

He says recent projections from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport expects a long slow climb back to normalcy.

The only thing that we can say for sure is that it's going to take time.  Minneapolis has said they don't expect travel numbers to return to 2019 levels until 2024.  I don't think that's out of the realm of possibility.  All I can say is that it's going to take some time.

Potter says business travel and international travel will be the last to recover.

He says one big question that remains hanging over the airline industry is whether the Biden administration will implement a negative COVID test require for domestic travel.

Airline CEOs have come out this week and practically begged the Biden administration not to do this, warning that it would be obviously detrimental to their business.

Potter says there could be an answer to that question in the next few weeks.

Meanwhile, Delta Airlines has announced that at least until May 1st they will continue to block the middle seat on all flights. They are the only airline in the country still doing this.

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