BC Ferries sees all-time annual record for vehicle traffic volumes

BC Ferries (Shutterstock)

Pent-up travel demand and the end of travel and health safety restrictions led to BC Ferries recording an all-time historic record for its vehicle traffic volumes in the previous fiscal year.

In its annual financial statements released today, the ferry corporation saw 9.4 million vehicles and 21.6 million passengers for the fiscal year period between April 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023 — the highest in the 63-year history of BC’s coastal ferry network.

Year-over-year, this is up by 11% from 8.5 million vehicles and 21% from 17.9 million vehicles in the 2021/2022 fiscal year.

You might also like:

To meet the increased demand, BC Ferries completed 86,835 round trips over the fiscal year, representing an increase of over 4,000 trips compared to the 2021/2022 fiscal year.

But the ferry corporation’s ability to sustain and ramp up service levels were hampered by persistent labour shortages, which led to an increase in total cancellations from 1.2% in the 2021/2022 fiscal year to 1.6% in the 2022/2023 fiscal year, as a percentage of total sailings.

“Like many companies facing staffing challenges, we are working hard to fill key positions to meet our commitment to our customers to deliver the service they rely on each and every day,” said Nicolas Jimenez, the new president and CEO of BC Ferries, in a statement.

BC Ferries saw an 8% increase in its revenues for the fiscal year to a total of $1.04 billion — primarily due to the increase in vehicle and passenger traffic levels, and the corresponding increase in food/beverage and retail sales.

But operating expenses increased by 14.2% to $868 million, as a result of the higher labour and fuel consumption costs from more roundtrips, and high inflation impacting overall fuel, maintenance, and labour costs.

BC Ferries saw a net loss of $1.8 million in the 2022/2023 fiscal year compared to net earnings of $34.1 million in the 2021/2022 fiscal year, with the difference largely due to the remaining balance of the federal and provincial government’s Safe Restart Funding multi-year operating subsidy from earlier in the pandemic.

In March 2023, during the previous fiscal year, BC Ferries made a significant move in improving the customer experience by launching a new online app for bookings and tracking sailings.

BC Ferries mobile app (BC Ferries)

You might also like: