YVR traffic returns to pre-pandemic levels

Photo: BIV files.

Passengers linger with luggage before boarding a flight at Vancouver International Airport

The crush of air travellers through Vancouver International Airport (YVR) continued in September, signalling that the hard-hit aviation sector is returning to normalcy. 

Airport traffic this week is expected to be almost at pre-pandemic levels. 

The Vancouver Airport Authority (VAA) said in a statement that it expects an average of 66,114 passengers per day and a total of 462,804 passengers in the week ending October 10. Today and Friday are expected to be the busiest days this week, according to the VAA.

In the same week in 2019, the airport welcomed an average of 66,256 passengers per day. That means that the airport this week is expecting its traffic level to be at nearly 99.8 per cent of what it was in the same week pre-pandemic. 

Peak travel season has now passed. Vancouver's main airport welcomed 1,838,322 passengers in September, which was nearly 85 per cent of the 2,168,162 travellers who travelled through the airport in September 2019.

The airport year-to-date has welcomed approximately 14 million people, which is nearly 74 per cent of the approximately 19 million people who transited through the airport in the first nine months of 2019, according to VAA statistics. 

Airport data from the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) holds that about 85.2 per cent of passengers travelling from YVR in September were screened within 15 minutes. Earlier this year, there were hours-long line-ups to get through security because of a shortage of security screening staff. 

CATSA subcontracts security screening at YVR to U.S.-based security giant Allied Universal, which has been rapidly hiring new workers.