Aircraft movement and civil aviation statistics, January 2026
Released: 2026-03-26
Highlights
Major Canadian airlines flew 7.0 million passengers on scheduled and charter services in January, up 1.1% from January 2025.
Aircraft movements at Canada's major and select small airports totalled 340,758 in January 2026, down 10.5% from the same month in the previous year. Local movements fell 20.6% year over year, while itinerant movements declined 6.1%.
Consult the Aviation Data Visualization Hub to explore aircraft movement statistics and monthly civil aviation statistics in an interactive format.
Major airlines' operating and financial statistics
Canadian Level I air carriers flew 7.0 million passengers on scheduled and charter services in January, 1.1% more than in January 2025.
The number of passenger-kilometres rose 3.5% year over year to 19.7 billion in January 2026, while capacity increased 1.5% to 23.9 billion available seat-kilometres. The passenger load factor (the ratio of passenger-kilometres to available seat-kilometres) was 82.7% in January, up from 81.0% observed in January 2025.
Chart 1
Passenger load factor, Canadian air carriers, Level I
Each passenger travelled an average of 2,825 kilometres in January 2026, up 2.4% from the same month a year earlier.
Level I carriers flew 192,000 hours (+0.5%) in January and generated $2.6 billion (+9.2%) in total operating revenue.
Local and domestic itinerant aircraft movements decrease
In January, flight school activity at Canada's major and select small airports decreased, which contributed to the year-over-year decline in local movements (-20.6% to 91,004). The largest decline was recorded at Boundary Bay Airport, in British Columbia (-5,696 movements).
Chart 2
Total aircraft movements at major and select small airports, by class of operation
Domestic itinerant movements in January declined 7.0% compared with the same month the previous year to 199,517. Decreases were recorded in 10 provinces and territories, with the largest declines in British Columbia (-4,904 movements) and Ontario (-4,752).
Transborder movements (to and from the United States) fell 9.5% in January, the largest monthly year-over-year decrease since the downward trend began in April 2025. By contrast, other international traffic (outside the United States) rose 10.0% year over year to 20,904 movements.
Focus on Canada and the United States
Transborder aircraft movements (to and from the United States) represented 11.7% of total itinerant movements at Canada's major and select small airports in January 2026, down from 12.2% in January 2025.
In January 2026, year-over-year declines in movements to and from the United States were recorded at all four of the largest Canadian airports: Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International (-11.8%), Vancouver International (-5.7%), Montréal/Pierre Elliot Trudeau International (-9.5%) and Calgary International (-1.2%).
Meanwhile, the number of passengers carried by Canadian Level I air carriers on scheduled transborder flights in January 2026 was 17.0% below the level recorded in the same month of the previous year. This was the 12th consecutive month of year-over-year declines. The capacity of these flights, measured in available seat-kilometres, declined year over year for the 10th consecutive month, down 19.1% from January 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 web page.
Note to readers
This consolidated monthly release covers the following statistical programs:
- Aircraft movement statistics (survey number 2715, tables 23-10-0296-01 to 23-10-0304-01)
- Monthly civil aviation statistics (survey number 5026, table 23-10-0079-01).
Consult the Aviation Data Visualization Hub to explore data from Aircraft movement statistics and Monthly civil aviation statistics in an interactive format.
The aviation statistics program uses respondent (Monthly civil aviation statistics) and administrative (Aircraft movement statistics) data.
An aircraft movement is defined as a take-off, landing or simulated approach by an aircraft, as defined by NAV CANADA.
An itinerant movement is the initial take-off or the final landing of an aircraft.
A domestic itinerant movement is defined as a movement, at a Canadian airport, of an aircraft departing to or arriving from a point in Canada.
A local movement is an aircraft conducting the following airport activities: touch-and-go, stop-and-go, simulated approach without landing, low approach, pull up while on final approach or missed approach. Local movements are often carried out during training flights (touch-and-go), equipment tests, etc.
On June 2, 2025, Stephenville Airport in Newfoundland and Labrador was closed. Since June 2025, movements for Stephenville Airport are excluded from Aircraft movement statistics. Data prior to June 2025 will continue to be available.
The Monthly Civil Aviation Survey covers all Canadian Level I air carriers: Air Canada (including Air Canada Rouge), Air Transat, Flair, Jazz, Porter and WestJet (including WestJet Encore). As of June 2025, Sunwing Airlines was fully integrated into WestJet.
The average passenger trip length is calculated by dividing the number of passenger-kilometres by the number of passengers. Trips across Canada and around the world are included in this calculation.
The data in this monthly release are not seasonally adjusted.
Data are subject to revisions.
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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