Busy December bookends potential record year at YVR Airport | Daily Hive

Busy December bookends potential record-breaking year at Vancouver International Airport

Taylor Swift-themed YVR sign and Christmas decorations at Vancouver International Airport in early December 2024. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

One of the busiest travel periods of the year is now in full swing at Vancouver International Airport (YVR), with passenger volumes anticipated to surpass those of the previous year.

On Monday, Vancouver Airport Authority told Daily Hive Urbanized they are expecting a total of 523,229 passengers for the seven-day period between December 25 and 31, 2024.

Overall, this is up by 6.5% compared to the 2023’s total of 491,266 over the same Christmas travel period. This is the busiest Christmas season since the pandemic.

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This week’s busy period entails 253,139 departing passengers, with 120,891 domestic, 58,692 US transborder, and 73,556 non-US international.

The majority of the activity is arriving passengers, reaching 270,090 over the coming week, including 135,274 domestic, 56,816 US transborder, and 78,000 non-US international.

The busiest travel day over this period is Boxing Day, December 26, when 77,889 passengers are expected. In contrast, today, on Christmas Eve, December 24, YVR is forecasting 72,554 passengers on 641 scheduled departing and arriving flights.

Today, the on-time performance departure is 92.86%, and the outbound baggage delivery performance is 98.3%. Security checkpoint wait times are currently six minutes for domestic, three minutes for US transborder, and four minutes for non-US international. The airport authority is still recommending that travellers arrive at the airport early — three hours for international/US transborder and two hours for domestic.

Over this busy holiday period, the top three domestic destinations are Toronto, Calgary, and Edmonton, while the top three international destinations, including US destinations, are Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and San Francisco.

The Taylor Swift bump

Earlier in December, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour’s three-night final stop in Vancouver provided the city with a bump in tourism.

According to YVR, it saw over 200,000 travellers over the three concert dates between December 6 and 8, representing an 8.1% increase compared to the same days in 2023.

The busiest day during the concert period was Sunday, December 8, the last concert date, when over 73,000 passengers passed through the terminal building.

Here is a breakdown of YVR’s passenger volumes for the period before, during, and after The Eras Tour, compared to the same period in 2023:

2024
- December 3: 64,779
- December 4: 63,057
- December 5: 66,566
- December 6: 60,831
- December 7: 70,796
- December 8: 73,562
- December 9: 71,221
2023
- December 3: 63,087
- December 4: 64,089
- December 5: 50,644
- December 6: 61,591
- December 7: 62,436
- December 8: 65,787
- December 9: 62,484

Approximately 180,000 spectators attended the concerts over the three nights at BC Place Stadium, with 70% of ticketholders travelling from outside the Lower Mainland, including those arriving from the United States by land border crossings.

According to Destination Vancouver, Taylor Swift fans booked 82,000 hotel room nights in Metro Vancouver earlier this December.

Potential record-breaking year for YVR

All signs indicate that YVR in 2024 could potentially break its all-time annual record of 26.38 million passengers set in 2019 or at least come close to doing so.

Based on the latest available statistics, YVR saw a total of 22.07 million passengers over the first 10 months of 2024 through October. This represents an average of 2.21 million passengers per month for the year to date.

In contrast, YVR logged 21.02 million passengers over the first 10 months of 2023 and 22.347 million passengers over the first 10 months of 2019. YVR’s totals for the first 10 months of 2019 and 2024 are only about 280,000 apart.

For the combined end-of-year period of November and December, YVR saw 3.92 million passengers in 2023 and 4.03 million passengers in 2019.

For all 12 months of 2023, YVR recorded 24.94 million passengers, which was the airport’s third-highest annual figure for passenger volumes. The figure for 2024 will certainly reach and exceed 2023’s totals to at least become YVR’s second-busiest year ever.

On a monthly basis, YVR’s monthly passenger volumes for the first 10 months of 2024 surpassed those of the same months in 2023, three months over the same period in 2019, and five months over the same period in 2018.

YVR’s strong rebound from the pandemic is attributed to the strong recovery of global aviation and local tourism in BC, the hosting of major events locally, and the continued expansion and introduction of new and improved flights by airlines serving the airport.

Last month, Vancouver Airport Authority president and CEO Tamara Vrooman shared that YVR has returned to a “very, very strong” financial performance following the initial pandemic challenges.

In addition to the recovery in passenger volumes, 2023 was YVR’s second-highest annual cargo volume ever, with 320,000 tonnes logged. The airport is now approaching the previous record of 338,000 tonnes in 2018.

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