Manitobans swapping air travel for road trips amid soaring price of fuel

The outside of the Travel Manitoba offices are seen at The Forks on April 23, 2026. (Joseph Bernacki/CTV News Winnipeg)

When she’s not flipping burgers at North Star Drive-In, Marina Deruyck travels to see her favorite bands, no matter the distance.

“We’re heading to Toronto for a concert in June and then I was hoping to return to Vegas for my birthday in September,” Deruyck said on Thursday.

What was once straightforward, however, is now tricky, as the cost of air travel is soaring due to the war in Iran. Some airlines recently dropped flights, altogether.

“The flights are just really expensive and they’re cutting out a lot of the direct flights, so it limits us kind of down to one day a week,” she said.

“It’s just hard with scheduling and all of that.”

Travel Manitoba’s Cody Chomiak said road trips are the new trend this year. He expects many more Manitobans will be hitting the road this summer.

“People wanting to take to the road, whether that’s in their car or an RV,” Chomiak said.

“We see huge interest from the Quebec market, as an example, who love to RV across Canada and really check out those places in Manitoba.”

On a sunny Thursday at The Forks – dozens of people enjoyed some time outdoors.

Some people CTV News caught up with are considering all options to travel west later this year.

“We are going into British Columbia to do the Great Divide Trail,” said Milan Simard.

“We’re flying to Calgary and then going out to Waterton Lake.”

“(Over) seven weeks, we’re doing 850 kilometres of walking,” said Eloi Gilbert who will be travelling with Simard.

Clayton Case and his wife Lisa are driving to a family wedding in Edmonton because flight costs are so uncertain.

“If we fly which, and we’ve actually done the math, the amount of gas it costs us is about equal to a flight,” said Clayton Case.

“It just takes you one more day.”

“I’m just glad we don’t travel a lot by air,” said Lisa Case.

“We go away once a year, so we kind of save up for that. We’ve got the WestJet card but other than that, most of our travel is by car.”