Screened passenger traffic at Canadian airports, January 2026
Released: 2026-03-02
4.5 million
January 2026
5.1% 
(12-month change)
Highlights
In January, 4.5 million passengers passed through pre-board security screening at checkpoints operated at Canada's eight largest airports, up 5.1% from January 2025 and 4.0% above the pre-COVID-19 pandemic level in January 2020.
Transborder traffic down for 12th consecutive month
In January 2026, transborder traffic (to the United States) fell 7.9% from January 2025 to 1.1 million screened passengers, marking the 12th consecutive month of year-over-year decline. Transborder passenger counts for January 2026 were 12.5% below the pre-pandemic level from January 2020.
Conversely, the number of passengers screened for international flights (outside the United States) in January 2026 reached 1.6 million, up from the same month in 2025 (+11.9%) and significantly higher than the level posted in January 2020 (+18.5%).
Domestic traffic was 1.9 million screened passengers in January 2026, a 7.9% increase year over year and a gain of 4.0% from the screened passenger counts recorded in January 2020.
Chart 1
Number of screened passengers at the eight largest airports in Canada, monthly, 2021 to 2026
Traffic strengthens at most airports
In January 2026, seven of the eight largest airports posted higher volumes of screened passenger traffic year over year. Only Winnipeg/James Armstrong Richardson International (-0.1%) posted a slight decrease.
In January, six of these eight airports surpassed their January 2020 pre-pandemic screened passenger volume, with Halifax/Robert L. Stanfield International (+14.1% compared with January 2020) recording the largest percentage increase.
Chart 2
Number of screened passengers at the eight largest airports in Canada, by sector, January, 2019 to 2026
Chart 3
Year-over-year percentage change in monthly screened passengers, by sector, 2025 to 2026
Focus on Canada and the United States
In January 2026, transborder (to the United States) screened passengers accounted for 23.2% of the total number of screened passengers, down from 26.5% in January 2025.
In January 2026, Canada's eight largest airports all posted declines in transborder traffic year over year.
Transborder traffic is concentrated at the four largest Canadian airports, which account for more than 90% of all such traffic. In January, the four largest airports recorded year-over-year decreases in screened passenger counts for flights to the United States: Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International (-8.6%), Vancouver International (-4.3%), Montréal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau International (-7.7%) and Calgary International (-5.7%).
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, January 2026."
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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