Vancouver International Airport July traffic surges past 2m

One of the clearest signs that tourism in BC is on the rebound is that more than 2m travellers passed through Vancouver International Airport in July – the most in a calendar month since December 2019. The 2,060,126 passengers who either departed flights or boarded them at Vancouver’s main airport last month is nearly triple the 693,774 passengers who did that in July 2021. That surge in traffic prompted some long line-ups and lost bags, although not at the scale seen at other Canadian airports, such as Toronto Pearson International Airport. Airlines, government departments and private companies that oversee airport screening have been rapidly hiring workers in Vancouver and across the globe in efforts to reduce congestion. Canadian Air Transport Security Authority data holds that approximately 81.5% of YVR passengers were screened within 15 minutes during July. While the rapid rise in air travellers shows that the tourism sector is rebounding, YVR’s traffic volume in July was 78.9% of the 2,612,363 passengers who either boarded planes or arrived at YVR in the same month in 2019.<br/>