Canadians return home for vacations as weak loonie discourages travel to U.S

Canadians  return home for  vacations as weak loonie  discourages travel to U.S.
An Air Canada plane takes off from  Montreal Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau International  Airport, in Montreal, Friday, Sept. 13,  2024. An Air Canada plane takes off from  Montreal Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau International  Airport, in  Montreal, Montreal, Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. 
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MONTREAL  - Barry Choi has  noticed that the number of seats  occupied on some of his flights  has decreased over the past  year. French To be continued - More homeless people  are turning to makeshift shelters as winter  approaches in  Saskatchewan
"People are  traveling a little  less," said Choi, who runs the personal finance and travel  website Money We Have, which  makes him  fly every four to six  weeks.
He wouldn't have predicted this trend two years ago, when the  desire to  leave was  almost palpable after COVID-19 border closures ended and air travel became  possible.
"Because of  this suppressed demand from the pandemic, people  have been packing up their trips. In 2022, I feel like everyone was  traveling. Everyone was  saying, 'I have to get  out.'"
"Some people waited until 2023, but this year  everyone has calmed  down a little bit," he  said. That trend is expected to  continue in December and January. After  vacationing abroad last year, more Canadians are  holding back on their  domestic travel plans this Christmas season due to  tight budgets, lower domestic fares and  the eventual end  of the post-pandemic overseas travel  boom — and now a  weakening currency.
The number of Canadian flights  to the United States  in December is  expected to  decline 2.5% from last year, according to figures from aviation tracking  company Cirium.
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Meanwhile, domestic flight capacity is  expected to  increase by nearly  10% this month compared to December  2023.
The additional flight capacity north of the border has helped  keep prices down even as demand  increases, with  Canadian fares  20% lower than  a year  ago in September, the  last month Cirium had  data available.

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