Aircraft movement and civil aviation statistics, October 2025

Highlights

Major Canadian airlines flew 7.1 million passengers on scheduled and charter services in October, up 2.2% from October 2024.

Aircraft movements at Canada's major and select small airports totalled 514,143 in October 2025, down 0.6% from the same month the previous year. Local movements declined 3.8% year over year, while itinerant movements increased 0.9%.

Consult the Aviation Data Visualization Hub to explore aircraft movement statistics and monthly civil aviation statistics in an interactive format.

Air travel grows in October

Canadian Level I air carriers flew 7.1 million passengers on scheduled and charter services in October, 2.2% more than in October 2024.

The number of passenger-kilometres rose 4.6% year over year to 19.6 billion in October 2025, while capacity increased 4.3% to 23.5 billion available seat-kilometres. The passenger load factor (the ratio of passenger-kilometres to available seat-kilometres) was 83.3% in October, edging up from 83.1% in October 2024. Although small, this was the first year-over-year increase in load factor since December 2024.

Chart 1: Passenger load factor, Canadian air carriers, Level I

Each passenger travelled an average of 2,743 kilometres in October 2025, up 2.3% from the same month a year earlier.

Level I carriers flew 183,000 hours (+4.6%) in October and generated $2.4 billion (+1.1%) in total operating revenue.

Local movements decline in October

In October, local movements at Canada's major and select small airports declined 3.8% compared with the same month in 2024. The airports with the largest declines were Fredericton International (-2,292 movements), Winnipeg/St. Andrews (-2,066) and Brandon Municipal (-1,791).

Chart 2: Total aircraft movements at major and select small airports, by class of operation

There were 298,754 domestic itinerant movements in October 2025, 1.1% higher than in October 2024. Increases were recorded in eight provinces and territories, with the largest gains in British Columbia (+3,496 movements) and Quebec (+2,140).

Transborder movements (to and from the United States) declined 2.9% year over year to 35,606 in October 2025. Meanwhile, other international traffic (outside the United States) reached 15,672 movements in October, up 8.0% from the same month of the previous year—the largest increase since August 2024.

Focus on Canada and the United States

Transborder aircraft movements (to and from the United States) represented 10.2% of total itinerant movements at Canada's major and select small airports in October 2025, down slightly from 10.6% in October 2024.

In October 2025, year-over-year declines in movements to and from the United States were recorded at all four of the largest Canadian airports: Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International (-2.6%), Montréal/Pierre Elliot Trudeau International (-7.1%), Vancouver International (-0.8%) and Calgary International (-1.1%).

Meanwhile, the number of passengers carried by Canadian Level I air carriers on scheduled transborder flights in October 2025 was 13.4% below the level recorded in the same month of the previous year. This was the ninth consecutive month of year-over-year declines. Capacity of these flights, measured in available seat-kilometres, declined year over year for the seventh consecutive month, down 10.7% in October 2025 from October 2024. The passenger load factor on scheduled transborder flights decreased from 82.3% in October 2024 to 78.5% in October 2025.

For more data and insights on areas touched by the socioeconomic relationship between Canada and the United States, see the Focus on Canada and the United States webpage.