Domestic travel is increasing at Canada’s airports, new Statistics Canada travel data shows, while the number of people travelling by air to the U.S. dropped in April.
The data released Monday looked at the total number of passengers who passed through pre-board security screening at Canada’s eight largest airports, finding a total of 4.5 million people made their way through those checkpoints, a 3.6 per cent overall increase from April last year.
However, the number of those travelling to the U.S. dropped — again — as the U.S. trade war continues.
The agency found that of these travellers, 1.1 million were those heading to the U.S., also known as “transborder” traffic.
That figure was 5.8 per cent lower than the number seen in the same month last year.
Statistics Canada notes it’s also the third consecutive month of year-over-year decreases to the U.S., and compared with pre-pandemic levels in April 2019, transborder passenger counts were down 12.5 per cent.
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Monday’s newly released data encompasses both Canadian and non-Canadian screened residents.
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In April of this year, the data shows air travellers to the U.S. accounted for 25.5 per cent of the total number of screened passengers, but that number is a drop from 28.1 per cent last year.
When it comes to this type of transborder traffic, the agency notes most is concentrated at the country’s four largest airports — Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary, which represent more than 90 per cent of all traffic to the U.S.
The data shows that each airport saw drops in screened passengers heading to the U.S.: Toronto Pearson International dropped by 5.3 per cent, Calgary International decreased by 1.6 per cent, Vancouver fell by 7.6 per cent and Pierre Elliott Trudeau International saw a 10 per cent decrease.
Meanwhile, the number of people choosing instead to travel to other Canadian cities is up, with two million people travelling domestically, an increase of 7.4 per cent compared with last year and a 1.5 per cent rise from April 2019.
There’s also been an increase of 7.1 per cent in people choosing to travel to international destinations outside the U.S., with 1.4 million heading abroad.
Statistics Canada’s data shows the number of those travelling internationally is substantially higher than in April 2019 as well, jumping 19 per cent.
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