Screened passenger traffic at Canadian airports, December 2025
Released: 2026-02-02
4.9 million
December 2025
0.6% 
(12-month change)
Highlights
In December, 4.9 million passengers passed through pre-board security screening at checkpoints operated at Canada's eight largest airports, up slightly (+0.6%) from December 2024, but 4.9% above the pre-COVID-19 pandemic level in December 2019.
In 2025, a total of 58.2 million passengers were screened at these eight airports, 2.1% higher than in 2024 and 4.8% more than the level reported in 2019.
Transborder traffic remains down
In December 2025, transborder traffic (to the United States) dropped 12.5% from December 2024 to 1.1 million screened passengers, marking the 11th consecutive month of year-over-year decreases. Canada's eight largest airports all posted double-digit declines. Transborder passenger counts for December 2025 were 12.4% below the pre-pandemic level from December 2019.
Meanwhile, the number of passengers screened for international flights (outside the United States) in December 2025 was 1.7 million, up 8.7% over the same month in 2024 and significantly exceeding (+21.0%) the level posted in December 2019.
Domestic passenger traffic was 2.1 million in December 2025, up 2.8% year over year and 5.0% above the passenger counts recorded in December 2019.
Chart 1
Number of screened passengers at the eight largest airports in Canada, monthly, 2020 to 2025
Uneven traffic across airports through busy holiday season
In December 2025, three of the eight largest airports posted higher volumes of passenger traffic year over year: Halifax/Robert L. Stanfield International (+6.2%), Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International (+2.3%) and Montréal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau International (+1.3%).
Vancouver International (-2.0%) reported the largest year-over-year decrease in December.
In December, six of these eight airports surpassed their December 2019 pre-pandemic screened passenger volumes, with Halifax/Robert L. Stanfield International (+15.1%) recording the largest percentage increase.
Chart 2
Number of screened passengers at the eight largest airports in Canada, by sector, December, 2019 to 2025
Chart 3
Year-over-year percentage change in monthly screened passengers, by sector, 2025
Year in review
In 2025, international (outside the United States) screened passenger counts were 6.0% higher than in 2024, with the eight largest airports all posting year-over-year increases. Moreover, the international sector led the post-pandemic recovery in passenger traffic, with volumes rising 14.6% compared with 2019.
Domestic traffic in 2025 grew 5.4% year over year and surpassed the level recorded in 2019 by 5.9%. The eight largest airports all reported higher domestic volumes compared with 2024.
In contrast, transborder passenger traffic (to the United States) decreased 7.5% from 2024 to 2025, with declines seen at seven of the eight largest airports. Only Halifax/Robert L. Stanfield International posted a year-over-year increase (+6.1%). Moreover, total transborder passenger counts for the eight largest airports were down 6.5% from the pre-pandemic level in 2019.
Focus on Canada and the United States
In December 2025, transborder (to the United States) screened passengers accounted for 23.2% of the total number of screened passengers, down from 26.6% in December 2024.
Transborder traffic is concentrated at the four largest Canadian airports, which account for more than 90% of all such traffic. In December 2025, the four largest airports recorded year-over-year decreases in screened passenger counts for flights to the United States: Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International (-11.3%), Vancouver International (-14.1%), Montréal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau International (-10.5%) and Calgary International (-13.6%).
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 release "Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada, December 2025."
For more data and insights on areas touched by the socioeconomic relationship between Canada and the United States, see the Focus on Canada and the United States webpage.
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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