More travelers take to the air for Memorial Day weekend

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - Many people have their bags packed and are starting their long weekend early. One couple at the Green Bay Austin Straubel Airport is excited to see their kids in Detroit.

“For Christmas they sent us the tickets and we couldn’t go for Covid reasons and now we’re going to go to see our granddaughter and we haven’t seen her for a year. It’s so exciting!” exclaimed Tim and Kim Ahrens of Manitowoc.

Airport officials tell us Memorial Day weekend is not usually a big one for air travel, but with more people getting vaccinated and restrictions easing, folks are eager to get out.

“What I saw is that there is going to be about 37 million people travel by air over this holiday weekend, which is about 60 percent more than last year,” Brian Hurley, Vice President of Travel Leaders.

“The airlines for the last year or so are really just trying to fill seats. There has been some really great air fares you can get anywhere in the country for under a few hundred dollars. Those airfares are starting to creep up a bit as people start to return to travel,” said Mary Piette, Director of Green Bay Austin Straubel International Airport.

There are some key destinations as leisure travel starts to pickup.

“Mexico has probably been our most popular destination besides Florida, Arizona also being very popular, but we’re seeing a lot of people heading to the beaches in Mexico,” said Hurley.

Travel experts say they anticipate business travel and international travel to come back a little slower, but are seeing bookings even into next year.

“Right now we’re seeing about 50 percent of our bookings for 2022,” said Hurley.

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