Martin Placek
Research expert covering transportation and electronics
Airports in Canada - Statistics & Facts
Air transportation in Canada is a vital part of the transport mix, with national and international airlines flying passengers and cargo across the country and around the world. In Canada, safety oversight and regulation of air transportation are overseen by the Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA). The total number of both enplaned and deplaned air passengers in 2020 in Canada amounted to around 46 million, with about 29 million of them being domestic air passengers. The Canadian domestic airline market is dominated by Air Canada and Westjet Airlines, both accounting for about 80 percent of the total domestic market as of 2020. This duopoly has precipitated a high cost in Canadian airfare with system-wide average airfare standing at 239.3 Canadian dollars in the second quarter of 2019.
Leading Canadian airports
The number of aircraft movements at Canadian airports was recorded to be at about 3.1 million in 2020. Canada’s leading airports include Toronto Pearson, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton International Airports, as well as Ottawa MacDonald International Airport. Toronto Pearson International Airport leads both in the domestic and international Canadian airline sector in the number of passengers handled. The total passenger traffic at Toronto Pearson in 2020 amounted to approximately 13.3 million, while in that same year, passenger traffic at Vancouver International Airport stood at around 7.3 million. Toronto Pearson International was as well the leading cargo airport in Canada in 2020, with a cargo traffic of approximately 303,600 metric tons, followed by Vancouver International with 232,640 metric tons of cargo transported.Security first
In the past decades, security has become one of the most important aspects of an airport. From April 2019 to March 2020, the capital expenditure on security at Canadian airports surpassed 104 million Canadian dollars. During the same financial year, 217 passengers were screened per hour per line at Canadian airports, up from 197 passengers per hour a year earlier. Security screenings are part of the ritual of air travel, and they are intended to prevent prohibited items and other threats from entering the secured area of the airport and eventually the airplane. As uncomfortable as these procedures might be, the travelers in Canada feel confident about them. Almost 84 percent of travelers expressed high confidence in Canadian airport security screenings during the financial year 2020.
