StatCan: Canadians travelling more, int’l bookings grow; cruise spend doubles

Canadians have a growing appetite for air travel, if the latest from Statistics Canada is any indication.

In January of this year, 4.3 million passengers passed through pre-board security screening at checkpoints at Canada's eight largest airports, marking a 1.6 per cent increase over January 2024, according to data the national statistical office released last Thursday (Feb. 27).

The agency notes that it’s a level similar to what was seen pre-COVID in January 2020.

Passenger traffic appears to be up across the board. Domestic traffic in January was 2.7 per cent higher than the same month in 2024, but 3.6 per cent lower than in January 2020.

International screened passenger counts (outside of the United States) in January were up 1.2 per cent over the same month in 2024 and exceeded the pre-pandemic level in January 2020 by 5.9 per cent, StatCan reports.

Also in January, transborder traffic (to the U.S.) was moderately higher (+0.6 per cent) than in January 2024, but 5.1 per cent below the January 2020 level.

Smaller airports lead growth

Canada’s smaller airports are driving the growth, the numbers show.

In January, the biggest year-over-year increases in passenger traffic were reported for Winnipeg/James Armstrong Richardson International (+9.2 per cent), Ottawa/Macdonald-Cartier International (+7.8 per cent), and Edmonton International (+7.2 per cent).

In terms of post-COVID recovery, screened passenger counts at Halifax/Robert L. Stanfield International (+6.0 per cent) and Calgary International (+4.6 per cent) posted the largest increases over January 2020 levels.

As PAX previously reported, some of Canada’s smaller airports, over the past year, have seen record-breaking numbers.

Kelowna (YLW), the Region of Waterloo (YKF), and Charlottetown (YYG) airports, for example, are just three airports reporting higher-than-usual passenger traffic

National travel survey

Statistics Canada, on Friday (Feb. 28), also released results from its national travel survey for Q3 of 2024.

During that quarter, Canadians took 105.0 million trips in Canada and abroad, up 5.3 per cent from the same quarter in 2023 and an increase of 3.4 per cent from the third quarter in 2019.

Most of the trips from July to September 2024 were domestic (89.9 per cent), followed by trips to the United States (7.6 per cent) and overseas (2.5 per cent).

Canadians took 94.3 million domestic trips during that period, up 3.9 per cent from the same quarter in 2023 and an increase of 3.0 per cent from the same quarter in 2019.

The main purpose of these trip were for holiday, leisure or recreation (47.0 per cent), followed by visiting friends or relatives (35.0 per cent), spending $27.4 billion in total, StatCan says.

Travel to the U.S.

Canadians took 8.0 million trips to the United States from July to September last year, marking an increase of 16.1 per cent from the third quarter of 2023 and up 6.3 per cent from the same quarter in 2019.

The number of overnight trips to the United States was 4.3 million in the third quarter of 2024, while the number of same-day trips totalled 3.7 million.

That quarter, the main trip purpose reported by Canadians was holiday, leisure or recreation (51.2 per cent), followed by visiting friends or relatives (22.5 per cent) and taking a special, non-routine shopping trip (14.9 per cent).

Total expenditures by Canadians in U.S. reached $6.4 billion in the third quarter, up 5.7 per cent from the same quarter in 2023 and an increase of 30.5 per cent from the same quarter in 2019.

It must be noted that these numbers were recorded before the U.S. election and now-President Donald Trump’s tariffs threats, which, in recent months, have led some Canadians to rethink their U.S. travel plans.

Italy, France & U.K. are top choices 

From July to September last year, Canadians returned from 2.6 million trips overseas. This was an increase of 31.8 per cent from Q3 of 2023 and up 6.5 per cent from the same quarter in 2019, says StatCan. 

Most Canadian residents reported the main purpose of their trip was holiday, leisure or recreation (60.3 per cent) during the third quarter of 2024.

The top three overseas countries visited by Canadian residents during summer 2024 were Italy (318,600 visits), France (237,100) and the United Kingdom (226,300) – which was similar to summer 2023.

Canadians spent $6.8 billion overseas in Q3 of 2024, up 19.9 per cent from the same quarter in 2023 and an increase of 38.3 per cent from 2019.

StatCan says Canadians spent an average of $2,582 per trip overseas, with an average trip length of 14.3 nights.

Cruise spend doubled in 2024 

Spending by Canadians on cruises to the U.S. and overseas also reached $203.6 million in the third quarter of 2024, says StatCan.

This level was up 68.3 per cent from the same quarter in 2023 and more than double (+107.5 per cent) compared with Q3 of 2019.

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