Screened passenger traffic at Canadian airports, April 2025
Released: 2025-06-02
4.5 million
April 2025
3.6% 
(12-month change)
Highlights
In April, 4.5 million passengers passed through pre-board security screening at checkpoints operated at Canada's eight largest airports, a 3.6% increase over April 2024 and 1.9% higher than the April 2019 level, pre-COVID-19 pandemic.
For comparisons with previous years, note that Easter fell in April in both 2025 and 2019, while Easter occurred in March in 2024.
Domestic traffic up, while transborder traffic declines
In April 2025, domestic passenger traffic was 2.0 million, 7.4% higher than in April 2024 and modestly surpassing (+1.5%) the pre-pandemic level recorded in April 2019.
The number of passengers screened for international travel (outside the United States) in April 2025 was 1.4 million, up 7.1% over the same month in 2024 and sharply higher (+19.0%) than the level posted in April 2019.
Transborder traffic (to the United States) was 1.1 million in April 2025, 5.8% lower than in April 2024 and the third consecutive month of year-over-year decreases. Moreover, in April 2025, transborder passenger counts were significantly lower (-12.5%) than the pre-pandemic level recorded in April 2019.
Chart 1
Number of screened passengers at the eight largest airports in Canada, monthly, 2020 to 2025
Passenger traffic up at all airports
In April 2025, Canada's eight largest airports posted higher volumes of passenger traffic year over year. Ottawa/Macdonald-Cartier International posted the largest increase (+8.6%) over April 2024.
In terms of a post-pandemic recovery, six of these eight major airports exceeded their April 2019 pre-pandemic volumes of screened passenger traffic in April 2025. Indeed, only Ottawa/Macdonald-Cartier International (-11.3% compared with April 2019) and Edmonton International (-5.5% compared with April 2019) posted a lower volume of screened passenger traffic.
Chart 2
Number of screened passengers at the eight largest airports in Canada by sector, April, 2019 to 2025
Focus on Canada and the United States
In April 2025, transborder passengers accounted for 25.5% of the total number of screened passengers, down from the 28.1% recorded in April 2024.
Transborder traffic is typically concentrated at the four largest Canadian airports: Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International, Vancouver International, Montréal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau International and Calgary International. Combined, these four airports represent more than 90% of all transborder traffic.
In April 2025, for the third straight month, all four airports recorded year-over-year decreases in screened passenger counts for flights to the United States: Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International (-5.3%), Vancouver International (-7.6%), Montréal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau International (-10.1%) and Calgary International (-1.6%).
Note that screened passengers include both Canadian and non-Canadian residents.
For preliminary numbers of arrivals to Canada from the United States by air and automobile, see the Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada, April 2025.
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.
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Note to readers
Data for this release are derived from the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) Boarding Pass Security System and include screened traffic at pre-board security screening checkpoints at the eight largest airports in Canada.
The eight largest airports in Canada are Halifax/Robert L. Stanfield International, Montréal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau International, Ottawa/Macdonald-Cartier International, Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International, Winnipeg/James Armstrong Richardson International, Calgary International, Edmonton International and Vancouver International.
Screened passenger traffic includes air travellers required to go through pre-board security screening and excludes aircrew and airport employees. This data series represents a different measure of traffic than the counts of enplaned or deplaned passengers published in Statistics Canada's annual Airport activity report or produced by the individual airports. For example, the screened passenger data will not account for passengers with connecting flights who did not pass through security. For more information, please refer to the "Related information" tab (Definitions, data sources and methods) for this release.
Users interested in accessing daily counts of screened traffic at Canada's major airports can obtain them from the CATSA website.
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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