YVR sees more passengers arriving

As the global aviation community re-builds from the impact of the pandemic, YVR reached an important milestone on August 5 as the airport hit the 10 million passenger mark year-to-date. And later this month YVR will also see its busiest single day of operations since the pandemic began, when over 70,130 passengers are expected to travel through the airport on Sunday, August 21.

“This is an important moment in our recovery. Our ability to welcome over 10 million passengers so far this year is due to the hard work of our staff, airlines, government, partners and the airport community at large. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the 20,000 people who work at our airport for their dedication to serving our passengers over the past several months. Their efforts have been an essential element of our recovery,” said Tamara Vrooman, President & CEO, Vancouver Airport Authority. “However, there is still considerable work to be done to ensure the stability of the overall aviation sector. But after only seeing approximately 2 million passengers at this same point last year, it is very encouraging that we are able to continue to build back while avoiding many of the security and major operational delays impacting passengers around the world.”

Over the past few months airlines have made important decisions to continue to invest in service restoration and expansion at YVR, including Air Canada launching Austin and announcing new service to Bangkok and Miami commencing this winter.

Going forward the operational impact of the pandemic on aviation is akin to the virus itself – it is still very unpredictable. YVR will continue to work closely with all industry stakeholders as passenger numbers continue to increase, and we remind travellers to please remain current on government travel policy requirements.

More information to help travellers prepare for their next trip through YVR, including travel measures and top tips, is available at yvr.ca/travelplanning.

Key Airport Statistics

For the week of Aug 8-14, YVR is expected to welcome an average of 67,000 passengers per day for a total of 473,036, connecting these travellers to 95 destinations across Canada and the world.

Within the week, Sunday, August 14 and Thursday, August 11 will be the busiest travel days with 69,273 and 68, 819 passengers expected, respectively. To put this in perspective, YVR welcomed an average of 31,538 passengers daily this time last year (2021) and 82,297 pre-pandemic (2019).

Daily passenger numbers through the week, including by segment, are outlined in “The week ahead at YVR” section below.

Latest highlights at YVR include:

• Skip the wait and pre-order food and beverage online with the recently launched YVR Order Now program
• Driving to the airport? Passengers can reserve their spot online and save on the price by booking on yvr.ca/parking.
• Airline updates :
  • Cathay Pacific increases service to Hong Kong from 2x to 4x/week
  • Japan Airlines increasing service to Narita from 4x to 5x/week
  • China Airlines increasing service to Taipei from 2x to 3x/week