Aircraft movement and civil aviation statistics, February 2025
Released: 2025-04-29
Highlights
In February, major Canadian airlines flew 6.5 million passengers on scheduled and charter services, down 3.1% from February 2024.
Aircraft movements at Canada's major and select small airports totalled 345,980 in February 2025, down 11.2% from the previous year. Itinerant movements declined 10.2% year over year, while local movements fell 13.5%.
Consult the Aviation Data Visualization Hub to explore aircraft movement statistics and monthly civil aviation statistics in an interactive format.
Major airlines' operating and financial statistics
The seven Canadian Level I air carriers flew 6.5 million passengers on scheduled and charter services in February, down 3.1% from February 2024. While this was the first year-over-year decline since March 2021, it was due in part to February 2025 having one less day than February 2024.
The number of passenger-kilometres in February 2025 was 17.4 billion, while capacity was 20.8 billion available seat-kilometres. The passenger load factor (the ratio of passenger-kilometres to available seat-kilometres) was 84.0%. This was slightly lower than the 84.5% recorded in the same month one year earlier.
Chart 1
Passenger load factor, Canadian air carriers, Level I
Each passenger travelled an average of 2,690 kilometres in February, which is essentially the same distance as that recorded in the same month the previous year (2,691 kilometres).
In February, Level I carriers flew 170,000 hours and generated $2.1 billion in total operating revenue.
Aircraft movements decline in all sectors
At Canada's major and select small airports, domestic itinerant movements declined 11.3% compared with February 2024 to 193,409 in February 2025. The largest declines were recorded at the Oshawa (-54.4%) and Kitchener/Waterloo (-49.7%) airports, largely due to reduced flight school activity.
Chart 2
Total aircraft movements at major and select small airports, by class of operation
Meanwhile, transborder movements (to and from the United States) fell 6.7% from the previous year to 29,769 in February. Other international traffic (outside the United States) decreased 2.6% to 17,013.
Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International accounted for more than half of the decline in international traffic in February. Total aircraft movements at this airport were hampered by a series of back-to-back winter storms coupled with the crash of a commercial aircraft on one of the runways, all of which led to delays and cancellations. Despite these events, Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International remained the country's busiest airport in February.
Local aircraft movements decreased 13.5% in February compared with the same month in 2024, following a year-over-year increase in January 2025. Declines were recorded in eight provinces and territories, with the largest decreases being in Ontario (-5,316 movements), British Columbia (-4,642) and Quebec (-4,468).
Focus on Canada and the United States
Transborder aircraft movements (to and from the United States) represented 10.7% of total itinerant movements at Canada's major and select small airports in 2023 and 11.1% in 2024. The four largest Canadian airports—Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International, Montréal/Pierre Elliot Trudeau International, Vancouver International and Calgary International—have accounted for approximately 75% of all transborder traffic each year since 2022.
In February 2025, all four of these airports recorded year-over-year decreases in aircraft movements to and from the United States: Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International (-11.2%), Montréal/Pierre Elliot Trudeau International (-10.3%), Vancouver International (-10.8%) and Calgary International (-5.5%). It should be noted that February had 28 days in 2025 and 29 days in 2024.
Statistics Canada will continue to monitor changes in aircraft movements between Canada and the United States.
For more data and insights on areas touched by the socio-economic relationship between Canada and the United States, see the Focus on Canada and the United States webpage.
Did you know we have a mobile app?
Download our mobile app and get timely access to data at your fingertips! The StatsCAN app is available for free on the App Store and on Google Play.
Note to readers
This consolidated monthly release covers the following survey programs:
- Aircraft movement statistics (survey number 2715, tables 23-10-0296-01 to 23-10-0304-01)
- Monthly civil aviation statistics (survey number 5026, table 23-10-0079-01).
Consult the Aviation Data Visualization Hub to explore data from Aircraft movement statistics and Monthly civil aviation statistics in an interactive format.
The aviation statistics program uses respondent (Monthly civil aviation statistics) and administrative (Aircraft movement statistics) data.
An aircraft movement is defined as a take-off, landing or simulated approach by an aircraft, as defined by NAV CANADA.
An itinerant movement is the initial take-off or the final landing of an aircraft.
A domestic itinerant movement is defined as a movement, at a Canadian airport, of aircraft departing to or arriving from another point in Canada.
A local movement is an aircraft conducting the following airport activities: touch-and-go, stop-and-go, simulated approach without landing, low approach, pull up while on final approach or missed approach. Local movements are often carried out during training flights (touch-and-go), equipment tests, etc.
On July 11, 2024, the flight service station at Peace River, British Columbia, was officially closed. Starting in August 2024, movements for Peace River Airport are excluded from Aircraft movement statistics. Data prior to August 2024 will continue to be available.
The Monthly Civil Aviation Survey covers all Canadian Level I air carriers: Air Canada (including Air Canada Rouge), Air Transat, Flair, Jazz, Porter, Sunwing and WestJet (including WestJet Encore).
The average passenger trip length is calculated by dividing the number of passenger-kilometres by the number of passengers. Trips across Canada and around the world are included in this calculation.
The data in this monthly release are not seasonally adjusted.
Data are subject to revisions.
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).
- Date modified: