APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – As we enter the 4th of July weekend, airports around the country are seeing returns to pre-pandemic travel levels.
Appleton International Airport is back to more than 90-percent of their July 2019 business travel levels.
“Planes are moving and people are going places. It’s great to see travel coming back…We are seeing the full effect of that travel-revenge phenomenon at the Appleton Airport,” said Marketing Manager Patrick Tracey. “A thousand people per day is nice around the holidays because there are no business travelers. So a thousand when there’s no business travel, we feel like we’re busy.”
Thursdays and Sundays have become the busiest days for airports as people take four-day weekend trips, or even longer. That’s definitely the case in Appleton.
“People are going to Florida like crazy. I’ve talked to people already this morning that are going to Disney for the next week. Especially popular was our Denver flight. It was completely full, and it’s full all weekend,” Tracey told WTAQ News. “As many people are coming home to spend a nice weekend in Wisconsin as there are leaving. We’ve really seen the people from the sunbelt states wanting to get out of the heat and come back to visit family and friends here in beautiful Wisconsin.”
Unlike the typical Thanksgiving surges, Tracey says the week following the 4th doesn’t have any unusual peaks or valleys and that travelers will be returning sporadically throughout the week and next weekend.
As leisure travel sees a resurgence and business travel begins to work back into the mix, Tracey is feeling optimistic about upcoming travel seasons.
“Honestly, if this were October and business travel were fully back? We’re going to start hitting two-thousand people per day this fall, flying out of Appleton,” Tracey predicted.
But even as people return to the terminals, Tracey is reminding them to pack their patience. Many services like car rentals, restaurants, and even retail – especially at major hubs – are still in the slow process of returning to normal.
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