YVR Airport saw 325,000 passengers in July 2020: statistics

View of the airside of Vancouver International Airport on September 28, 2020, with the under-construction Pier D international terminal building expansion slated for completion by the end of this year. (Vancouver Airport Authority)

Vancouver International Airport (YVR) continued to experience an incremental regrowth in its air passenger volumes over July 2020.

Statistics for the month show YVR recorded 325,258 passengers — an 87.5% decrease compared to the 2.6 million passengers in July 2019, but up from 189,708 in July 2020 and 68,730 during the pandemic low in April 2020.

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With travel restrictions abroad, domestic air travel continues to be the leader for passenger volumes. International air travel is down by 95.5% year-over-year across all markets.

Here is the full breakdown of YVR’s passenger traffic for July 2020:

Domestic:
- 2019: 1,235,327
- 2020: 263,443 (-78.7%)
US transborder:
- 2019: 649,300
- 2020: 17,338 (-97.3%)
Asia Pacific:
- 2019: 429,793
- 2020: 34,977 (-91.9%)
Europe:
- 2019: 251,199
- 2020: 9,441 (-96.2%)
Miscellaneous:
- 2019: 46,744
- 2020: 59 (-99.9%)
Month total for June 2020:
- 2019: 2,612,363
- 2020: 325,258 (-87.5%)

Over the first seven months of 2020, YVR recorded 5.6 million passengers — down from 15.3 million over the same period in 2019, which ended with a record 26.4 million.

In an interview with Daily Hive Urbanized in early August 2020, Vancouver Airport Authority CEO Tamara Vrooman said there were two general types of air travellers during the mid-summer period, specifically outbound trips of international students returning home after post-secondary institutions announced they will be conducting online classes for the fall term, and Canadian repatriation and essential trips.

July 2020’s statistics also show a total of 9,361 runway movements over the month — down by 66% from 27,563 in the same month in 2019, but up from 7,046 in June 2020 and 5,568 in April.

Runway movements of jet aircraft specifically were down by 69.1% to 5,068, compared to 16,421 in July 2019.

Air cargo volumes at YVR have steadily rebounded to 20,623 tonnes — a 30% drop from July 2019, but up from the 50% drop in April 2020.

Monthly aviation volume statistics are compiled and released approximately two months after the fact.

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