Number of people from Canada flying to the U.S. plunges in April: StatCan report

A traveller walks to security screening at the Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, B.C., on Sept. 18, 2024. (Ethan Cairns / The Canadian Press)

While April was a busy month for Canada’s airports, a new report has found that fewer travellers flew to the United States. Some experts believe the drop is tied to Canadians avoiding U.S. travel amid fears about stricter border scrutiny, as well as backlash towards U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war and annexation threats.

The number of passengers at Canadian airports who were screened to travel to the U.S. plunged in April, compared to a year ago, for the third straight month. However, traffic was up year-over-year for those who travelled domestically or internationally to non-U.S. destinations, Statistics Canada found in a new report released Monday.

Transborder traffic to the U.S. saw 1.1 million visitors in April, down 5.8 per cent from the same period last year, according to the data. The numbers were lower by 12.5 per cent compared to April 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, domestic passenger traffic in April was up by 7.4 per cent to two million compared to April 2024. This was also up 1.5 per cent compared to April 2019.

The number of passengers screened for international travel outside the U.S. rose by 7.1 per cent year-over-year in April to 1.4 million. What’s more, the April number was significantly higher by 19 per cent compared to April 2019.

Additionally, Canada’s eight largest airports had more passenger traffic year-over-year.

The country’s major airports screened 4.5 million passengers this April, compared to the same period last year. That’s 3.6 per cent higher than in April 2024 and 1.9 per cent higher than in April 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the report didn’t examine the reasons behind the numbers, Statistics Canada will release another report on June 25 that will explore the trends, Trever Bova, a senior analyst with Statistics Canada’s Energy and Transportation Statistics Division, told CTVNews.ca in a video interview Tuesday from Ottawa.

Anthony Quinn, chief operating officer of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP), told CTVNews.ca last month that the weak loonie may also be a factor behind many Canadians avoiding travel to the U.S.

The dip in U.S. travel comes as many Canadians have been boycotting American travel and products because of Trump’s tariffs and threats to make Canada the 51st state, and the Canadian government has warned about stricter scrutiny at the border.

“It’s not all too surprising, just given the political climate between the U.S. and Canada,” Ryan Ewing, founder of the airline blog AirlineGeeks.com, said in a Zoom interview Monday from Austin, Texas with CTVNews.ca. Ewing spoke on the possible reasons behind the dip in U.S. air travel, noting the tariffs Trump imposed on Canada and strong rhetoric from the U.S. didn’t help “morale” among Canadian travellers.

“I think what you’re also seeing is pretty big reduction in Canadian point-of-sale travellers, meaning people who are from Canada coming to the United States,” Ewing said. “It’s not so much the case that Americans going to Canada.”

John Gradek, a lecturer in aviation management at McGill University in Montreal, believes the trend won’t end anytime soon.

“I think that you’re going to see more and more Canadians travelling domestically, travelling internationally and avoiding U.S. travel,” Gradek said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca on Monday. “I think it’s a trend we started seeing in February after we started to have these statements coming out of the White House about Canada becoming a 51st state.”

Gradek believes news about tighter scrutiny at the border with U.S. officials checking electronic devices, and tourists detained or turned back at the border, are also factors.

“Canadians are basically starting to get nervous about travelling to the U.S.,” he added.

Methodology

The data came from the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) Boarding Pass Security System. It includes passengers screened at pre-board security checkpoints, excluding aircrew, airport employees and those with connecting flights who did not pass through security.

Information was gathered from the eight largest airports in Canada: Halifax/Robert L. Stanfield International, Montréal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau International, Ottawa/Macdonald-Cartier International, Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International, Winnipeg/James Armstrong Richardson International, Calgary International, Edmonton International and Vancouver International.