Although the global pandemic hit the travel industry hard, travel is on the rise again with crowds heading to the airports.

While we’ve been keeping our eye out for cheap flights, there’s also been changes coming to travel in general. And, those changes have started to come to Florida as well!

The Orlando International Airport has started to prepare for overseas travel early, according to the Orlando Business Journal. While there were 7.16 million international passengers in 2019, the numbers dropped nearly 77.5% to 1.61 million passengers instead in 2020.

However, the number has started to drop again for 2021 as only 274,653 international passengers have traveled through the Orlando International Airport. That means travel is down a total of 80.52% in comparison to the 1.4 million passengers during the same month last year and 88.7% to the 2.44 million passengers for the same month in 2019.

Currently, the airport offers international flights to Colombia, Germany, Mexico, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Panama, Dominican Republic, Iceland, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Canada with other destinations planned over the next year. Demand for select destinations has continued to increase, though, so airlines have had to increase the number of flights per week in order to accommodate the amount of people looking to travel.

The Orlando International Airport has continued to reach out to airline companies like British Airway and Virgin with details of Central Florida’s current state. The airport is currently looking to reestablish the international connections that were lost before looking for new ones. Yet, much of this depends on what countries are open to international traveling moving forward.

Currently, the United States and the United Kingdom are looking into opening travel between the countries once again. The U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow stated, “The millions of travel-supported U.S. jobs lost to the pandemic cannot be replaced without the return of international visitors, and the UK is our No. 1 overseas travel market.” The U.S. government has also designated experts who are looking into beginning travel to Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the European Union.

The increased international travel could help aid in the Orlando International Airport’s numbers. It would take some time and effort, though, to help the airport return to its previous popular numbers. Currently, the domestic-to-international flight split is 94% domestic and 6% international compared to 87% domestic and 13% international prior to the pandemic.

According to Orlando Business Journal, at this time, the international flights being reinstated this summer and later include:

• • Avianca Airlines — Cali, Colombia, starts July 15
  • Emirates — Flights to Dubai are set to start July 2
  • Frontier Airlines — San Jose, Costa Rica starting July 1; St. Maarten, Leeward Islands starting July 10
  • Icelandair — Iceland starting on July 24
  • KLM Royal Dutch Airlines — Amsterdam, Netherlands starting Oct. 31
  • Virgin Atlantic — London/Heathrow starting July 1

We’ll be sure to keep you updated on everything you need to know about international flights moving forward. And, you can stay tuned with All Ears for more Disney and travel news!

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