SASKATOON -- Tammy Langmaier has been a snowbird since 2011 – but this year she’s staying put at her home in Regina, experiencing a few things she hasn’t done in almost a decade.

“I’ve had to shovel for the first time in years and driving in the winter. My first day out, I slid through a stop sign. Thankfully there were no cars coming,” Langmaier said.

She’s reacquainting herself with the winter routine because this year she’s not going to her home in Maricopa, Arizona, a place she worked hard to have. The change in plans because she fears getting COVID-19.

“I’m just angry with the whole situation. My whole life has pretty much been turned upside down.”

Being able to go south for a few months each year has been good for her mental well being, she said.

Now she’s just looking forward to getting vaccinated against coronavirus. If that happens before May, she’ll try to head to her Arizona home even for a short while.

Another snowbird, from Saskatoon, hasn’t let the pandemic stop him from going south.

Rudy Flaman has a home in the Phoenix area and made the tough decision to leave his kids and grandkids before Christmas because provincial health regulations wouldn’t have allowed them to be together anyway.

He said he takes the pandemic seriously and follows all the rules when he goes out in public down there.

“Pretty much everybody is wearing a mask and for the most part we feel really, really safe, but then again we are not going to parties and concerts and all that kind of stuff. We thought if we’re going to sit it out, we’re going to sit down here where it’s a little warmer so that’s where we are,” Flaman says.

He tells CTV News that he’s heard from other snowbirds that about half are coming down in the early part of the new year and that many are flying instead of driving because of the border closure.

Andrew Leeming with Skyxe tells us that passenger numbers at the Saskatoon airport are down 85 per cent compared to previous years.

“There are no direct flights south or charter flights from Saskatoon at this time compared to twenty or so flights per week in 2019,” according to Leeming.