OTTAWA: In December 2020, total aircraft movements at Canada’s major airports were down 31.1% compared with December 2019, following the 26.6% decline reported in November, according to Statistics Canada.
Despite the significant year-over-year declines, transborder (flights between Canada and the United States) and other international movements each reached their highest levels in December since travel restrictions were first announced in March.
Boundary Bay in British Columbia was Canada’s busiest airport on both a monthly (11,458 movements) and annual (185,431) basis.
In fact, 2020 marked the first time in almost 40 years that Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International in Ontario was not the most active airport in the country. Domestic movements (within Canada) declined 35.8% in 2020, from 3.4 million movements in 2019 to 2.2 million in 2020.
Scheduled service, particularly in Eastern Canada, was impacted heavily by the collapse in passenger demand.
The magnitude of the overall decline was masked in part by domestic non-scheduled aircraft movements such as flight training and fire-fighting operations, StatCan said.
December capped a devastating year for air travel as total movements at the 90 airports with NAV CANADA towers and flight service stations fell to 256,064, down one-third from the levels reported in December 2019.
Itinerant movements (flights from one airport to another) decreased 41.4% to 159,635, while local movements (flights that remain in the vicinity of the airport) dipped 3.0% to 96,429.
Domestic activity dropped to 146,070 movements, down 33.0% compared with December 2019. Transborder traffic fell to 8,562 movements (-77.3%) and other international movements decreased to 5,003 (-69.6%)— the highest number of non-domestic movements since the introduction of travel restrictions in March.
Despite an advisory against non-essential travel outside Canada and a mandatory 14-day quarantine period after returning from abroad, according to data from Travel between Canada and other countries, over 170,000 Canadians flew home from abroad in December, up by about one-third from November.
For December, Boundary Bay was Canada’s busiest airport with 11,458 movements, followed by Toronto/Lester B. Pearson (10,932 movements) and Vancouver International in British Columbia (10,688).
In 2020, total aircraft movements were 3.8 million, down sharply from 5.9 million in 2019. Domestic movements declined 35.8% in 2020, from 3.4 million movements in 2019 to 2.2 million in 2020. Scheduled service, particularly in Eastern Canada, was impacted heavily by the collapse in passenger demand. Of all types of traffic, transborder movements recorded the largest decline (-68.0%) in 2020, falling to 155,793.
Toronto/Lester B. Pearson— historically the country’s busiest airport—experienced the largest decline (-61.5%) in air traffic in 2020, with 280,047 fewer takeoffs and landings than in 2019.