Canada’s four largest airports — Toronto Pearson International, Vancouver International, Calgary International and Montreal Trudeau International — made up more than 70% of all air passenger traffic in Canada last year, StatCan says.
A new report from the agency reveals that 2022 passenger traffic more than doubled that of 2021, when many COVID restrictions were still in place. But passenger numbers were still only 72% of the 162.9 million recorded in 2019.
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, for a year-over-year increase of more than 153%.
The number of passengers at Toronto Pearson rose almost 181% to 34.7 million, Vancouver International Airport saw an increase of 165% to 18.5 million passengers and Calgary International Airport saw nearly 13.9 million passengers for an increase of about 136%.
Montreal Trudeau had the largest increase at 206%, with more than 15.3 million passengers recorded in 2022.
"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.
Canada eased its COVID-19 travel requirements in March 2022, and ended the country's travel restrictions in October. But the year also saw significant disruptions in both the summer and winter peak 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.
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