With both WestJet and Air Canada cutting back on flights this summer in an attempt to keep up with demand/lack of staff do we see things improving in the fall?

Looking at flights for next year around Jan/Feb and the options seem lackluster and prices are nearly twice what i've paid for them in the past (pre-covid)

Do you mean travel pricing? The travel experience? What kind of improvement do you mean?

After Labour Day when kids are back in school.

It could well be that many passengers with credits from cancelled pandemic journeys or those who sat on the travel sidelines for several years opted to book Winter 2022/2023 sunspot escapes earlier than before, perhaps in part to get in before WS ended it's flexible booking policy in early July knowing they could always cancel and deposit everything into their WS Travelbank. This flexibility policy applied to even Basic fares if bought by 21 June.

You didn't mention a destination but am guessing you're not planning a mid-Winter escape to Regina so if you're hoping Sunny destination ticket prices return to a pre-pandemic "normal" and deeply discounted seat sales come out this Fall you may be disappointed.

Sorry meant everything really. Prices, less delays/lost baggage, more route options etc. I'm not expecting things to be perfect but was wondering when we could see more routes, better prices tbh

You're right I'm looking at Cancun pre or post spring break. and prices have increased quite a but since I started monitoring in April. I already noticed that Air Canada had pulled their daily direct flights from YVR to CUN from daily to 4 days a week. I might keep an eye on things until I see what unfolds towards end of summer and just bite the bullet and book regardless in fall

I've noticed as well that Air Canada is cutting back on the number of planes it has in service. I checked on the plane I was on from YYJ which was really late. It had been all over NA and the Caribbean non stop prior to YYJ. No slack in the schedule so it got progressively later. Seems to me this is an attempt to save money not cut back on service!!

If you�re expecting everything to go back to how it was pre-pandemic, that may be awhile and it maybe never.

But things will stabilize. Passengers have to pay higher fares right now and deal with terrible travel experiences. That will decrease peoples willingness to travel. There�s also at least some pressure from people who delayed travel during the pandemic which will start easing (think people that visit distant family every 2-5 years now travelling this year).

At the same time higher fares and more certainty in the demand will let airlines, airports, logistic companies, Governments, etc. hire more and continue training the new people they�ve recently hired.

Predicting the future has been hard. People think this Summer should have been obvious, but at the same time many of us thought Christmas was going to be huge for travelling and then Omicron hit. And all of these things that affect supply/demand take time to stabilize.

I think we�re pretty close to a more stable travel experience and it�ll keep getting better for the next few years. I think we�re a ways away from pre-Covid pricing (when adjusting for inflation).

I don't see a reduction in demand for travel. There will be a big surge this winter for people going south after two winters in Canada.

I would expect things to improve in September as leisure travel declines post-summer without business travel yet returning to pre-pandemic levels. The question is whether all parties—airports, airlines, government, etc—can implement fixes prior to the busy winter season. I think the demand for leisure travel this winter will be very high (presuming there is no great COVID resurgence based around a worse variant) and the question is whether the system/industry will be more prepared to handle it than they were this summer. I’d like to think they will be.

Depends on the baseline you�re measuring against. I think travel this Winter is definitely lower than it would be if Pearson (and air travel generally) wasn�t such a .... show this Summer. I know a few people that have either decided to drive or delay booking Fall/Winter trips until they see what�s happening.

I don�t really have a sense of how Winter travel compares to Summer travel in Canada historically.

Never. Everyone will just get used to what occurs now and it will be normal.

I do and the Summer travels trends, at least pre-pandemic, were more domestic/USA/EU focused while Winter tended to be more sunspot Caribbean/Mexico/Hawaii focused.

Western Canadians often opted for non-stop West Coast Mexico & Hawaii or Caribbean destinations and connecting via YYZ if necessary while Eastern flyers having far more non-stop Caribbean options tended to head there more instead of Hawaii or if they did Maui, they would usually stay longer.

A limit in the number of flight crews could really impact the sunspot market this coming Winter with demand again likely outstripping available supply so expect some cities like YEG to lose many of their former favorite non-stop sunspot routes or with far less frequency and far more connections through YYC or YVR. Limited supply will also impact pricing as what reduced flights and routes are operating will be at higher prices than many such as OP were accustomed to pre-pandemic.

It's at least a few more years until travel becomes more as it was pre-COVID.

The post above makes perfect sense, not just because of its author.

This year I have started planning our winter getaway particularly early. Last December I was able to score J (mixed and full on return) for 25k Aeroplan points each way from YEG to CUN. Nothing even close this year. Maybe it's too early?

​​​​​​Wound up booking YEG - SXM for 17k in Economy early December, although the schedule can easily change. Then on local island airlines to PTP, then to Miami (AA w/ Avios) and back to Edmonton with Air Canada (12.6k). So some decent redemptions before school is out, but on a handful of dates. Been eyeing PTP and FDF for a few years, and it's always been a bit of a challenge as AC flies only out of YUL, but starting mid-December, I don't see anything particularly well-priced to the Caribbean.

My biggest worry, in addition to schedule changes, is new/updated vaccine mandates this fall. No one in our family will be "up to date" at that time.

Traditionally (which is to say, pre-pandemic) and very broadly, summer travel tended to be east-west while winter travel tended to be north-south. There is always a certain amount of capacity to major airports (e.g. London, Frankfurt, Orlando) that caters to business travelers and year-round vacation destinations. But in winter the seasonal capacity to Europe has been re-routed to sun destinations in Hawaii, the Caribbean, and so on. More recently that has included extra routes to Australia and the new route to New Zealand for Air Canada. (This was perhaps most visible when Rouge had a widebody fleet, but it pertained to mainline as well.)

If we continue to see capacity problems in the winter season, probably the first thing to go will be north-south routes from smaller airports with travelers instead being routed through YYZ, YVR, etc. Presumably after that would be a thinning of routes to minor sun destinations (so they fly three times a week instead of six or seven). What’s probably less likely is cutting destinations altogether, especially as winter draws closer. Or that’s my two cents, anyway…

This is like asking when will travel go back to pre-9/11 style. It won't.