Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada, April 2025
Released: 2025-05-12
632,626
April 2025
-1.2% 
(12-month change)
1,836,646
April 2025
-1.7%
(12-month change)
820,652
April 2025
-10.7%
(12-month change)
1,242,376
April 2025
-35.2%
(12-month change)
In April, the preliminary number of international arrivals (returning Canadian residents and non-residents combined) to Canada by air and automobile was 4.5 million, down 15.2% from April 2024. This was the third consecutive month of year-over-year declines.
Non-resident trips to Canada by air decline
In April 2025, non-resident arrivals to Canada by air totalled 632,600, down 1.2% year over year (Chart 1). This total included arrivals by US residents (289,300; -5.5% from the same month in 2024), and arrivals by overseas residents (343,400; +2.8%).
According to the daily traffic data, a daily average of 13,300 US-resident arrivals was observed from Thursday, April 17 to Friday, April 18, 2025 (Good Friday), which was 27.6% higher than the average for the other Thursday-Friday periods of the month.
Chart 1
Non-resident trips to Canada by commercial aircraft, April, 2019 to 2025
Infographic 1
Trips to Canada by commercial aircraft, by country of residence, April 2025
Canadian-resident return trips by air edge down
In April, Canadian-resident return trips by air from abroad stood at 1.8 million, edging down 1.7% from the same month one year earlier (Chart 2). Although Canadian-resident return trips from overseas countries increased (1.3 million; +9.9% from April 2024), return trips by air from the United States continued to decline in April 2025 (582,700; -19.9%).
In April, the highest number of returning Canadian-resident arrivals per day was observed on Sunday, April 6 (74,300), and the lowest was seen on Thursday, April 10 (46,200).
Chart 2
Canadian-resident return trips from abroad by commercial aircraft, April, 2019 to 2025
US-resident trips to Canada by automobile decrease
In April, the number of US-resident trips to Canada by automobile (820,700) showed a decline by 10.7% from the same month in 2024 (Chart 3). This was the third consecutive month of year-over-year declines.
The highest number of arrivals of US residents was observed on April 18 (Good Friday) (51,400), which was 23.4% higher than the average of the other Fridays of the month.
Chart 3
US-resident trips to Canada by automobile, April, 2019 to 2025
Infographic 2
Trips to Canada by automobile, by country of residence, April 2025
Canadian-resident return trips from the United States by automobile continue to decline
In April, the number of Canadian-resident return trips by automobile from the United States totalled 1.2 million, a steep decline (-35.2%) from the same month in 2024 (Chart 4). April 2025 marked the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year declines.
In April, the highest number of returning Canadian-resident arrivals was observed on April 21 (Easter Monday) (72,900). This number was 90.2% higher than the average for the other Mondays of the month.
Chart 4
Canadian-resident return trips from the United States by automobile, April, 2019 to 2025
Focus on Canada and the United States
In April 2025, the number of arrivals to Canada by US residents by air decreased 5.5% from the same month in 2024, while arrivals by automobile decreased 10.7%.
Meanwhile, Canadian-resident return trips by air fell 19.9% in April 2025 compared with the same month in 2024. Canadian-resident return trips by automobile dropped 35.2%—the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year declines.
For more data and insights on areas touched by the socio-economic relationship between Canada and the United States, see the Focus on Canada and the United States webpage.
Explore Tourism data
To further explore current and historical data in an interactive format, see Frontier Counts: Interactive Dashboard.
For other tourism-related information, see the Travel and Tourism Statistics portal.
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Note to readers
This release provides an early indicator of travel based on preliminary data on international arrivals to Canada for April 2025 for air and automobile (arrivals by automobile made by overseas residents are not included in this release). Complete counts will be available with the release of "Travel between Canada and other countries" on June 23.
For more information on concepts, definitions, data sources and methods, refer to Frontier Counts.
Data sources
All counts of arrivals by air are from commercial aircraft and are produced exclusively using primary inspection kiosk (PIK) data received from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). PIKs were deployed at Toronto Pearson International Airport Terminal 1 on June 22, 2021, and, as of July 2021, these arrivals are included in the total counts, which has consequently improved coverage. In 2024, PIKs captured 90.3% of all commercial air arrivals.
Counts of arrivals to the country by automobile through land ports equipped with the CBSA's automated Integrated Primary Inspection Line (IPIL) system represent a subset of US-resident trips and Canadian-resident return trips by automobile. In 2024, IPIL land ports captured 88.9% of all automobile entries.
Next release
The Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada for May 2025 will be released on June 10.
Products
The product "Frontier Counts: Interactive Dashboard," part of the Data Visualization Products series (71-607-X), is available.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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