Screened passenger traffic at Canadian airports, February 2026
Released: 2026-03-31
4.2 million
February 2026
1.0% 
(12-month change)
Highlights
In February, 4.2 million passengers passed through pre-board security screening at checkpoints operated at Canada's eight largest airports, up 1.0% from February 2025.
Transborder traffic down for 13th consecutive month
In February 2026, transborder traffic (to the United States) fell 10.2% from February 2025 to 1.0 million screened passengers. This marked the 13th consecutive month of year-over-year declines, continuing a notable change in travel patterns amid trade tensions with the United States. Indeed, transborder counts for February 2026 were well below (-12.0%) the same month in 2024, before such tensions.
The number of passengers screened for international flights (outside the United States) in February 2026 was 1.4 million, 5.1% higher compared with the same month in 2025. In contrast with the transborder sector, the international sector has posted year-over-year increases in every month but one since February 2025.
Domestic traffic reached 1.8 million in February 2026, up 5.3% year over year as Canada's eight largest airports all posted increases.
Chart 1
Number of screened passengers at the eight largest airports in Canada, monthly, 2021 to 2026
Chart 2
Number of screened passengers at the eight largest airports in Canada, by sector, February, 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 February 2026, transborder (to the United States) screened passengers accounted for 24.2% of the total number of screened passengers, down from 27.2% in February 2025.
In February 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 February, the four largest airports recorded year-over-year decreases in screened passenger counts for flights to the United States: Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International (-8.7%), Vancouver International (-6.5%), Montréal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau International (-9.4%) and Calgary International (-12.6%).
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, February 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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