Air passenger traffic rose in 2022, below pre-COVID: report

The number of passengers who travelled through Canada’s airports more than doubled in 2022 compared to the previous year.

But air travel is still lower than pre-pandemic levels, the recent data from Statistics Canada shows.

A report Friday from StatCan found that in 2022, nearly 117.3 million passengers boarded and disembarked planes at Canadian airports.

This is compared to the almost 46.3 million passengers recorded in 2021, back when many COVID-19 travel restrictions were still in place, for a year-over-year increase of more than 153 per cent.

“Two years after the COVID-19 pandemic brought worldwide air travel to its knees, the Canadian aviation industry continued to recover in 2022,” the report says.

But while last year did see continued growth for air travel in Canada, passenger numbers were still only 72 per cent of the 162.9 million recorded in 2019.

Canada eased its COVID-19 travel requirements in March of last year and later ended the country’s travel restrictions in October. Significant disruptions, however, would end up defining both the summer and winter travel seasons.

“The unexpected sharp increase in passenger volume during the busy summer travel season left some major airports grappling with challenges largely stemming from staffing-related problems,” the StatCan report says.

A recent analysis also found that Canada’s two biggest airlines — Air Canada and WestJet — have seen a greater proportion of their flights delayed this summer compared to U.S. airlines.

COMPARING THE FOUR LARGEST AIRPORTS

The country’s four largest airports — Toronto Pearson International, Vancouver International, Calgary International and Montreal Trudeau International — made up more than 70 per cent of all air passenger traffic in Canada last year, StatCan says.

The number of passengers at Toronto Pearson rose almost 181 per cent to 34.7 million, Vancouver International Airport saw an increase of 165 per cent to 18.5 million passengers and Calgary International Airport saw nearly 13.9 million passengers for an increase of about 136 per cent.

Montreal Trudeau had the largest increase of the four at 206 per cent, with more than 15.3 million passengers recorded in 2022.