Travel from Canada to U.S. in May: car trips up 15%, air travel down 5.5%

In May, Canadian-resident return trips from the United States totalled 1.9 million, marking a 9.5 per cent from the same month in 2025, reports Statistics Canada, releasing its latest figures on Thursday (June 11).

Driven by an increase in return trips by automobile (up 15.1 per cent), the increase in overall return trips from the U.S. in May 2026 marked both the second consecutive month of year-over-year increases and the second increase since December 2024.

In contrast, return trips from the U.S. by air in May decreased 5.5 per cent from May 2025, StatCan reports.

Meanwhile, Canadian return trips from overseas countries by air totalled 1.1 million in May 2026, up 3.0 per cent from the same month one year earlier.

That month, the highest numbers of return trips from abroad by Canadian residents were observed over the Victoria Day long weekend, from Sunday, May 17 to Monday, May 18 (318,400 over the two days). The lowest was seen on Wednesday, May 13 (72,400). 

The number of international arrivals to Canada (Canadian-resident return trips, combined with U.S-resident and overseas-resident arrivals) by air and automobile totalled 5.2 million in May, up 7.6 per cent from the same month in 2025.

May 2026 marked the second year-over-year increase in international arrivals since January 2025.

Don't miss a single travel story: subscribe to PAX today!  Click here to follow PAX on Facebook.