Screened passenger traffic at Canadian airports, December 2023
Released: 2024-01-29
4.5 million
December 2023
8.9% 
(12-month change)
Highlights
In December, 4.5 million passengers passed through pre-board security screening at checkpoints operated at Canada's eight largest airports, an increase of 8.9% compared with the number of passengers during the challenging holiday travel period of December 2022.
However, December 2023 traffic was 3.5% below the same month in 2019, ending a five-month run in which total passengers had surpassed pre-COVID-19 pandemic volumes.
Fewer domestic passengers
Domestic passenger traffic in December (-1.0%) was down compared with December 2022, marking the first year-over-year monthly decline for this sector in 2023. Indeed, the December 2023 passenger volume of 1.8 million was 8.5% lower than the same period in 2019.
Transborder traffic to the United States (+15.0%) was up sharply from December 2022, although volumes of screened passengers in December 2023 continued to be below pre-pandemic levels.
In December, other international traffic (outside the United States) increased by 18.5% compared with the same month in 2022. The 1.5 million passengers screened for international flights in December 2023 was also higher (+6.8%) than the volume reported in December 2019, making it the only sector to surpass pre-pandemic volumes.
Chart 1
Number of screened passengers at the eight largest airports in Canada, monthly, 2019 to 2023
Many airports see strong year-over-year growth
In December, six of Canada's eight largest airports reported increases in year-over-year screened passenger traffic, with Ottawa Macdonald Cartier International, Montréal-Trudeau International, and Toronto Pearson International reporting double-digit increases.
Conversely, Edmonton International (-1.8%) and Halifax Stanfield International (-1.1%) both experienced a drop in traffic in December compared with December 2022.
Of Canada's eight largest airports, only Montréal-Trudeau International reported a December 2023 passenger volume higher than that of December 2019 (+4.6%). This was the ninth consecutive month in which traffic exceeded pre-pandemic volumes.
Chart 2
Number of screened passengers at the eight largest airports in Canada, by sector, December, 2019 to 2023
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Note to readers
Data for this release are derived from the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) Boarding Pass Security System and include screened traffic at pre-board security screening checkpoints at the eight largest airports in Canada.
The eight largest airports in Canada include: Halifax/Robert L. Stanfield International, Montréal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau International, Ottawa/Macdonald-Cartier International, Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International, Winnipeg/James Armstrong Richardson International, Calgary International, Edmonton International and Vancouver International.
Screened passenger traffic includes air travellers required to go through pre-board security screening and excludes aircrew and airport employees. This data series is a different measure of traffic than the counts of enplaned/deplaned passengers published in Statistics Canada's annual Airport activity report or produced by the individual airports. For example, the screened passenger data will not account for passengers with connecting flights who did not pass through security. For more information, please refer to the "Related information" (Definitions, data sources and methods) for this release.
Users interested in accessing daily counts of screened traffic at Canada's major airports can obtain them from the CATSA website.
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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