Memorial Day weekend air travel ramps back up at Redmond Airport

And that makes parking a premium once again

REDMOND, Ore (KTVZ) -- The Memorial Day holiday weekend brought lots of air travelers back to the Redmond Airport -- the heaviest traffic since the pandemic began -- and the hunt for a parking space returned.

"It's been a busy weekend, and a busy May," airport Director Zachary Bass said Monday.

Bass said a lot of people were flying in and out of the airport, surpassing pre-pandemic traveling.

"We saw numbers over the last three days for Memorial Day average about 12% higher than what we saw in 2019 and about 16% on Saturday and Friday," he said.

Larissa Coleman flew in from Seattle to visit friends in Bend for the holiday weekend.

Coleman said while trying to fly out of her local airport, it was so busy, she couldn't find a parking spot to leave her car and ended up missing her flight.

"It was so ridiculous that we finally had to reschedule our flight, drive home, park our car at home and get a Uber back to the airport," Coleman said.

Bo Price, a Dallas resident, said it's been two years since he's visited his son in Redmond.

Price said he did not visit last year because of the pandemic, so he took advantage of his five-day holiday weekend to make the trip.

"I think that it’s okay to do it, to travel now. Everybody is wearing masks, and so I'm hopeful that we are on the downside of this COVID deal," Price said.

Bass said so far numbers for this month match May 2019 travel counts, a sign that traveling is going to be picking back up soon.

Monday morning, the Redmond Airport parking lot was about 80% full.

Bass added a friendly reminder to those traveling.

"Regardless if you're vaccinated or unvaccinated, masks are required at all airports in the country, and on all aircraft," he said.