Vancouver International Airport (YVR) saw an exceptionally strong first half of 2024 by posting near-record passenger volumes.
Newly released statistics show Canada’s second-largest airport recorded 12.6 million passengers between January and June 2024.
This is an improvement over the 11.74 million passengers recorded over the same period in 2023.
This figure is also just short of the record 12.68 million passengers set in the first half of 2019 and surpasses the previous second-best total of 12.42 million passengers in the first half of 2018.
For the latest monthly statistics, YVR saw 2.32 million passengers in June 2024, including 1.14 million domestic passengers, 627,000 US transborder passengers, 320,000 Asia Pacific passengers, and 186,000 European passengers. This was the third-best June on record, just behind the 2.389 million recorded in both June 2018 and June 2019.
Domestic and US passenger numbers for June 2024 exceeded pre-pandemic totals from 2019, while Asia Pacific and European figures, though still lagging, have shown a relatively strong post-pandemic recovery.
Based on the performance in the first half of 2024, if YVR maintains the to-date average of 2.1 million passengers per month for the rest of the year, it could end 2024 with 25.2 million passengers.
It remains to be seen how WestJet’s labour strike affected YVR’s passenger volumes early this summer. Over 1,000 flights, impacting more than 100,000 passengers across WestJet’s global network, were cancelled in the days leading up to, during, and after the Canada Day 2024 long weekend.
The all-time passenger record at YVR was set in 2019, with 26.4 million passengers.
YVR recorded 24.94 million passengers in 2023, a 31% increase from the 19.05 million recorded in 2022 and the third-highest total ever — just behind 2018’s figure of 25.98 million.
Traditionally, August and September are YVR’s busiest months of the year, surpassing even December due to the influx of tourists and the return of students and workers.