Halifax air traffic is up substantially from 2019 levels, but Ottawa is down sharply.
StatsCan airport figures for July of this year show that 5.6 million passengers passed through pre-board security screening at checkpoints operated at Canada's eight largest airports, an increase of 3.3% from July of last year. All eight posted higher volumes of screened passenger traffic year over year.
Overall, screened passenger traffic in July 2024 came in above pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, with 4.1% more screened passengers than in July 2019. But regional results vary widely when July 2024 figures are compared with pre-pandemic levels.
Five airports experienced higher screened passenger volumes compared with their pre-pandemic levels. For the second month in a row, YHZ led the increases, up 11.2% over July 2023.
But YOW traffic for the month was down 11.9% from July 2019. Traffic at YYZ was down 1.4% from pre-pandemic levels, while YWG traffic was down 0.1%.
On a year-over-year basis, however, YOW traffic for July of 2024 was up 4.4% from last year, while YYZ was up 3.6%.
Transborder passenger traffic fully recovered
Traffic to the U.S. in July 2024 was 12.5% higher than in the same month in 2023 and 9.1% higher than in July 2019. July 2024 was the third consecutive month in which transborder traffic topped pre-pandemic volumes.
In July, international screened passenger counts (outside of the United States) grew 6.2% over July 2023, exceeding pre-pandemic levels from July 2019 by 2.7%.
The number of passengers screened for domestic flights was down 3.0% year over year in July 2024, but 2.0% higher than in July 2019.
