Return trips from U.S. at eastern Ontario border crossings down 26.5 per cent in May year-over-year

Vehicles wait to enter Canada at the US/Canada Thousand Islands border crossing Lansdowne, Ontario, on Monday Nov. 8, 2021. (Lars Hagberg/THE CANADIAN PRESS) (Lars Hagberg/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

New data from Statistics Canada show that the number of Canadians coming home via the three U.S. border crossing sites in eastern Ontario is down significantly compared to a year prior.

According to the data, there were 67,468 Canadian-plated vehicles entering Canada at the Cornwall, Lansdowne, and Prescott border crossings in May 2025. In May 2024, there were 91,790, a 26.5 per cent decrease, year-over-year.

The number of American-plated vehicles entering Canada at those three crossings also declined, but not as severely. Statistics Canada says there were 48,389 American-plated vehicles entering at Cornwall, Prescott and Lansdowne in May 2025, compared to 49,270 the year before.

The crossing at Cornwall was the busiest, with 69,201 total vehicles (Canadian- and American-plated) entering Canada in May 2025. There were 33,363 vehicles entering Canada at the Lansdowne crossing, and 13,293 vehicles crossed into Canada at Prescott.

Air travel did not see as precipitous a decline.

The number of Canadians returning from the U.S. at the Ottawa International Airport in May fell slightly year-over-year, from 26,270 in 2024 to 25,596 in 2025. The number of Americans landing at the Ottawa airport dropped from 13,442 in May 2024 to 13,272 in May 2025.

The Ottawa International Airport receives flights from Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, Newark, N.J., and Washington, D.C.

Canadian resident return trips from the U.S. by automobile nationwide totalled 1.3 million in May 2025, down 38.1 per cent compared with May 2024, Statistics Canada said, marking the fifth consecutive month of year-over-year declines. There were 488,800 total return trips by Canadian residents by air from the U.S. last month.

Many Canadians have been boycotting travel to the U.S. over U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of annexing Canada as the “51st state” and over broader concerns of safety at the border.

With files from The Canadian Press