One of the clearest signs that tourism in B.C. is on the rebound is that more than two million travellers passed through Vancouver International Airport (YVR) 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 (CATSA) data holds that approximately 81.5 per cent 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 per cent of the 2,612,363 passengers who either boarded planes or arrived at YVR in the same month in 2019.
July and August are both very busy months.
July 2019 was the busiest month that year for international visitors to enter Canada through B.C., with 949,540, compared with 922,730 such travellers in August.
At YVR, however, August 2019, with 2,681,698 passengers, was busier than July, which saw 2,612,363 passengers.
The airport expects an average of 67,111 passengers per day this week, for a total of 489,781 people.
Tomorrow, August 4, with 68,516 expected passengers and Sunday, August 7, with 69,800 expected passengers are anticipated to be the busiest days of the week.
