Aircraft movement and civil aviation statistics, April 2026
Released: 2026-06-25
Highlights
Major Canadian airlines flew 7.0 million passengers on scheduled and charter services in April, edging up 0.5% from April 2025.
Aircraft movements at Canada's major and select small airports totalled 504,454 in April 2026, down 3.7% from April 2025. Local movements declined 6.0% year over year, while itinerant movements were down 2.4%.
Consult the Aviation Data Visualization Hub to explore aircraft movement statistics and monthly civil aviation statistics in an interactive format.
Growth in air travel slows
Canadian Level I air carriers flew 7.0 million passengers on scheduled and charter services in April, 0.5% more than in April 2025. The level in April was the slowest rate of year-over-year growth so far in 2026.
The number of passenger-kilometres rose 2.0% year over year to 19.5 billion in April 2026, the slowest pace since December 2025, while capacity increased 1.0% to 23.0 billion available seat-kilometres. The increase in capacity was the smallest since the decline recorded in August 2025 during a labour disruption. The passenger load factor (the ratio of passenger-kilometres to available seat-kilometres) was 84.8% in April 2026, up from 83.9% in April 2025.
Chart 1
Passenger load factor, Canadian air carriers, Level I
Each passenger travelled an average of 2,769 kilometres in April 2026, up 1.4% from the same month a year earlier.
Level I carriers flew 185,000 hours (+2.2%) in April and generated $2.6 billion (+10.7%) in total operating revenue.
Domestic and transborder movements down
Domestic itinerant movements dropped 2.8% in April to 278,671. The decrease was driven by reduced flight school activity at certain airports compared with April of the previous year. The biggest decline was at the airport in Oshawa, Ontario (-2,625 movements).
Chart 2
Total aircraft movements at major and select small airports, by class of operation
Transborder aircraft movements (to and from the United States) were also down on a year-over-year basis in April, falling 2.6% to 33,374, the 13th consecutive month of decline. Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International, Ontario (-455 movements), Vancouver International, British Columbia (-257) and Montréal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau International, Quebec (-193) led the declines.
In contrast, other international movements (outside the United States) were up 4.3% year over year, reaching 18,871 in April. This was the 14th consecutive month of year-over-year growth, albeit the smallest increase since August 2025. Montréal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Canada's second-busiest airport in terms of other international traffic, posted its first year-over-year decrease since September 2025, decreasing 2.9% (-120 movements) in April 2026.
In April, some air carriers announced they would implement various measures in response to elevated jet fuel prices due to the conflict in the Middle East. Measures announced included suspending routes, consolidating flights and shortening the duration of some seasonal service.
Focus on Canada and the United States
Transborder aircraft movements (to and from the United States) represented 10.1% of total itinerant movements at Canada's major and select small airports in April 2026, unchanged from the 10.1% observed in April 2025 and down from 10.9% in April 2024.
In April 2026, year-over-year declines in movements to and from the United States were recorded at the four largest Canadian airports: Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International (-3.5%), Vancouver International (-5.1%), Montréal/Pierre Elliot Trudeau International (-3.9%) and Calgary International (-4.1%).
Meanwhile, the number of passengers carried by Canadian Level I air carriers on scheduled transborder flights in April 2026 was 8.4% below the level recorded in the same month of the previous year. This was the 15th consecutive month of year-over-year declines. The passenger numbers were 18.3% below those recorded in April 2024. Capacity of transborder flights, measured in available seat-kilometres, declined year over year for the 13th consecutive month, down 12.4% from April 2025 and 16.6% from April 2024.
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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