Busiest day of the year: 71,000 travellers at Vancouver International Airport

Busiest day of the year: Nearly 71,000 passengers at Vancouver International Airport

Aircraft deicing at Vancouver International Airport. (Vancouver Airport Authority)

Vancouver International Airport (YVR) recorded its busiest day of 2022 for passenger volumes on Monday, surpassing previous forecasts that estimated this coming Thursday to be the busiest day of the holiday season.

In a bulletin issued late Monday, YVR stated it is expected to end the day with a total of 70,761 passengers due to the accumulation of snow-related impacts from over the weekend.

This is just over 5,000 passengers shy of the busiest day in pre-pandemic 2019, when YVR saw 75,877 passengers on December 20.

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At the time of writing, nearly all arriving and departing flights through the end of Monday are delayed, mainly due to snow and ice conditions at YVR. There are also a number of cancellations, mainly with short-haul domestic flights using smaller aircraft. A snowfall warning is currently in effect across Metro Vancouver, with up to 10 cm of snow accumulation expected at YVR between Monday evening and Tuesday early afternoon. Overnight temperatures with wind chill are anticipated to dip to a low of -14°C.

Over the two-week holiday travel period through January 1, YVR is expecting to see an average of about 64,511 passengers daily for a total of 903,150. Over the same period in 2019, the airport recorded an average of 72,179 passengers per day for a total of 1.01 million. The volumes for 2022’s holiday season are considerably higher than the same period in 2021, when YVR saw an average of 38,698 per day for a total of 541,775 passengers.

The second busiest day at YVR this holiday season is expected to be Thursday, December 29, when 67,286 passengers are anticipated.

As usual, the slowest day for passenger volumes will be Christmas Day, with 57,788 passengers currently projected.

Over the past year, global aviation demand has recovered far more quickly than previously anticipated, and both airlines and airports have had immense difficulty with ramping up their operations and labour requirements to adequately meet the passenger volumes.

YVR is expected to end 2022 with a total of over 17 million passengers for the entire year — a relatively strong recovery, but short of the all-time record of 26.4 million passengers in pre-pandemic 2019. The airport is currently forecasting 22 million passengers for 2023 — equivalent to volumes previously experienced in 2016.

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