Passenger volumes between Vancouver International Airport and U.S. destinations fell in August for the 20th consecutive month on a year-over-year basis, while total YVR traffic rose.
The Story
Air travel between Vancouver International Airport (YVR) and U.S. destinations declined in August for the 20th consecutive month, according to data provided by the Vancouver Airport Authority on a year-over-year basis.
In August, 2,815,298 passengers either boarded or departed at YVR, up 6.3 per cent from August 2025. Over the first eight months of 2026, passenger traffic increased 4.1 per cent to 18,920,519 compared with the same period last year.
Despite that overall growth, passenger travel between YVR and U.S. destinations totalled 634,531 in August, down five per cent from the same month in 2025. For the first eight months of the year, 4,169,147 passengers travelled between YVR and U.S. destinations, a 4.4 per cent decrease versus the same period in 2025.
The data also shows domestic travel driving much of the airport’s overall increase. There were 1,453,331 domestic passengers in August, accounting for 51.6 per cent of all travellers and up 8.9 per cent from August 2025. For the first eight months of 2026, 9,372,196 passengers made trips into or out of the airport, representing 49.5 per cent of overall travel, with domestic travel up 5.7 per cent versus the same period last year.
Passenger traffic to the Asia-Pacific region continued to rise. In August, Asia-Pacific travel grew 18.6 per cent year over year to 440,869 people, and across the first eight months of the year the region remained YVR’s biggest growth market with 3,377,754 travellers, up 14.6 per cent compared with the same period in 2025.
YVR also pointed to planned service expansion to China, saying it expects 32 weekly flights on nine routes between YVR and mainland China in November—up nearly 40 per cent from 23 weekly flights on those routes last November. The airport linked some of that momentum to a policy that allows Canadian passport holders to travel to China without a visa through at least the end of 2026.
Cargo volumes also increased in August. Tonnage rose 16.2 per cent to 34,435 tonnes, and air cargo volumes through YVR for the first eight months of 2026 increased 13.5 per cent to 266,235 tonnes.
← More stories