25 million passengers recorded at Vancouver International Airport in 2023

Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive

Vancouver International Airport (YVR) experienced an exceptionally strong 2023, based on its official count of passenger volumes for the year.

Newly released statistics by Vancouver Airport Authority show YVR recorded a total of 24.94 million passengers in 2023, representing a 31% increase from the 19.05 million recorded in 2022, and a 95% recovery of the all-time record of 26.38 million experienced in pre-pandemic 2019.

The total tally for 2023 is YVR’s third-best performing year ever for passenger volumes, coming in between the 24.17 million passengers seen in 2017 and 25.94 million passengers in 2018.

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The strongest year-over-year percentage gains were recorded in the volumes for domestic, US trans-border, and Asia Pacific. YVR saw new all-time passenger volume records in its domestic and US trans-border sub-markets.

Domestic volumes reached a total of 12.81 million in 2023, representing an increase of 21% from 10.6 million in 2022, and exceeding the pre-pandemic domestic volume of 12.68 million in 2019.

US trans-border volumes went up by 38.5% year-over-year, climbing from 4.37 million in 2022 to 6.05 million in 2023. Annual volumes for US-transborder also far exceeded 2019 by about 360,000 passengers.

Global travel demand to Asia Pacific was the last to recover due to strict pandemic-time health safety measures that remained in place until late 2022 and early 2023 within major markets such as China and Hong Kong. Asia Pacific volumes increased by 81.5% year-over-year, reaching 3.38 million passengers in 2023, but were still well below the pre-pandemic 2019 record of 4.58 million. YVR has yet to regain its capacity to Mainland China destinations, but it is experiencing steady regrowth in services reaching Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia.

Year-over-year passenger volumes for Europe saw the smallest percentage increase of 11.4%, growing from 1.41 million in 2022 to 1.57 million in 2023. But the European tally for 2023 represents a steady regrowth towards the all-time record of 1.76 million recorded for this sub-market in 2019.

YVR’s high passenger figures are driven by the strong rebound in global aviation demand and local tourism, as well as new and improved routes, especially with Air Canada doubling down on growing YVR as its Trans-Pacific hub.

The strong recovery in passenger volumes at YVR could translate into a surge in SkyTrain Canada Line ridership in 2023, with public transit ridership statistics for last year expected to be released this spring. The Canada Line previously experienced a slower ridership recovery compared to the Expo/Millennium lines due in part to YVR’s depressed aviation activity.

As well, YVR saw 250,325 runway movements throughout 2023 — an increase of about 9% compared to 2022, but still a decrease of about 16% compared to 2019 levels.

When it comes to cargo volumes, YVR saw 319,032 tonnes of freight in 2023, which is the second-highest annual cargo total on record — just behind the 338,180 tonnes of 2018.

In comparison, Calgary International Airport (YYC) recorded about 18.5 million passengers in 2023, which is a new all-time record for YYC — beating 2019’s tally of 18 million. YYC’s recent strong post-pandemic growth is being propelled by WestJet’s new strategy of expanding international routes from Calgary to grow YYC as its primary international hub.

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