Over 550,000 passengers expected at YVR Airport this Christmas travel week
Roughly 552,200 passengers are expected to travel through Vancouver International Airport (YVR) this week, making it one of the busiest periods for travel of the year.
In a bulletin today, Vancouver Airport Authority is forecasting 269,920 arrivals passengers and 282,306 departures passengers for the holiday period from December 19 to 26, 2023.
On average, YVR will see about 69,028 passengers per day during this period.
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The busiest day for travel will be Friday, December 22, when 74,534 passengers are expected.
The slowest day will be Christmas Day, when 66,627 passengers are expected.
In comparison, over the same holiday period in pre-pandemic 2019, YVR recorded an average of 72,277 passengers per day for a total of 578,217 over the week. This means YVR will see 96% of its 2019 passenger volumes during the same week in 2023.
The busiest times for check-in and security at the airport during the holiday period are 6 am to 1 pm and 8 pm to 10 pm for domestic, 5 am to 8 am and 10 am to noon for US transborder, and 10 am to 1 pm for international.
The airport authority told Daily Hive Urbanized upon inquiry they are expecting about two million passengers at YVR for the month of December 2023, which would represent an increase of approximately 250,000 from the 1.75 million recorded in December 2022, and a figure that is close to the 2.155 million recorded in December 2019.
The most recently updated full statistics show YVR saw 20.956 million passengers over the first 10 months of 2023, including 2.094 million in October. This is about 5.3 million more passengers than the same period in 2022.
In fact, October 2023’s tally was over 30,000 higher than October 2019, marking the first time YVR saw a monthly total since the pandemic that surpassed the same month in 2019.
YVR states the annual totals for 2023 will be compiled by February 2024.
But if the monthly trend of at least two million passengers per month holds for November and December, 2023 could be one of YVR’s best performing years ever for total passenger volumes — potentially comparable to the 24.166 million passengers recorded in 2017, the 25.936 million passengers in 2018, and the all-time historic record of 26.369 million passengers in 2019.
YVR saw an annual total of 19 million passengers for all of 2022, which is the same tally for the first nine months of 2023.
After YVR’s chaotic operations leading up to Christmas 2022 due to snowfall and ice buildup, the airport authority created an action plan of new measures and protocols to help avoid a repeat of the unprecedented operational breakdown at Canada’s second largest airport.
The action plan, finalized in Spring 2023, is supported by $40 million in funding to add new staff, improve training, increase the use of technology and communication, and invest in additional equipment.
- You might also like:
- Vancouver International Airport has already recorded 19 million passengers over the first nine months of 2023
- The official count: Over 19 million passengers recorded at Vancouver International Airport in 2022
- YVR Airport creates online dashboard for real-time security wait times and parking availability
- Vancouver International Airport outlines $40 million plan to overhaul protocols after Christmas 2022 chaos
- Remember those $9K flights? We mark one year since the snowstorm that almost cancelled Christmas
- New expanded international Plaza Premium Lounge coming to Vancouver airport