Aircraft movement and civil aviation statistics, January 2024

Released: 2024-03-26

Highlights

In January, aircraft movements at Canada's major and select small airports totalled 317,569, down 5.9% from January 2023. Local movements fell 15.7% year over year to 79,012, while itinerant movements declined 2.1% to 238,557.

At the same time, major Canadian airlines flew 6.8 million passengers on scheduled and charter services in January 2024, with the passenger load factor at 83.1%.

Consult the new Aviation Data Visualization Hub to further explore data from Aircraft movement statistics and Monthly civil aviation statistics in an interactive format.

Fewer local movements, while international traffic up

In January, there were fewer local movements year over year in most provinces and territories across the country, with the largest declines reported in British Columbia and Alberta. In British Columbia, Boundary Bay reported a drop of 51.5% in local movements, while those in Abbotsford were down 24.7%. Similarly, in Alberta, Edmonton/Villeneuve had 50.8% fewer local movements, while Calgary/Springbank decreased 21.6%. Reduced flight school activity accounted for most of the decline in movements at these airports.

Chart 1 
Total aircraft movements at major and select small airports, by class of operation

In January, other international traffic (outside the United States) was up 14.7% year over year, reaching 18,646 movements, and remains above the pre-COVID-19 pandemic level. As indicated by the release "Screened passenger traffic at Canadian airports," the number of passengers screened for international flights also increased in January.

At the same time, transborder movements to and from the United States were up 3.3% to 32,133 in January. There was a notable gain reported at Ottawa/Macdonald-Cartier International (+58.3%), primarily from the addition of commercial passenger flights to several US destinations.

Domestic movements declined 4.4% to 187,778 in January, with much of the decrease attributable to private and smaller operators not classified as Level I to III or foreign carriers.

For the third consecutive month, airports in Ontario reported the highest number of aircraft movements, with 86,959 in January. Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International remained the busiest airport, with 31,499 movements, a 7.4% year-over-year increase.

Major airlines' operating and financial statistics

The seven Canadian Level I air carriers flew 6.8 million passengers on scheduled and charter services in January, 10.9% more than in January 2023 when there were six Level I carriers.

The number of Level I air carriers increased from six in 2023 to seven in 2024, because one Level II air carrier was reclassified to Level I.

The number of passenger-kilometres in January was 18.6 billion and capacity was 22.4 billion available seat-kilometres. As a result, the passenger load factor (the ratio of passenger-kilometres to available seat-kilometres) was 83.1%, a slight decline from the 83.7% recorded in the same month a year earlier.

Chart 2 
Passenger load factor, Canadian air carriers, Level I

Each passenger travelled an average of 2 750 kilometres in January, up 1.8% from January 2023.

Level I carriers flew 184,000 hours in January 2024 and generated $2.3 billion in total operating revenue.

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).