Vancouver International Airport on track for record-breaking year, partly from resurgence in China traffic
For example, Cathay Pacific, the flag carrier of Hong Kong, put its last grounded plane stored at a facility in an Australian desert back into service in June 2024 — a slow incremental process that began in late 2022. Cathay Pacific reached the key milestone of achieving 100 per cent of its pre-pandemic flights in January 2025.
Mainland China airlines followed a similar timeline in re-expanding their operations, beginning with domestic and then international, which is ongoing amid China’s challenging domestic economic issues.
Before the pandemic, Mainland China was one of YVR’s largest sources of passenger traffic — most notably through direct, non-stop flights. In fact, YVR boasted more services to Mainland China than any other airport in North America.
Today, while the number of direct routes and overall seat capacity between Mainland China and YVR remain below pre-pandemic levels, strong demand from Chinese travellers is increasingly being captured through connecting hubs across Asia.
“The China market is certainly different than it was prior to the pandemic, but we have started to see some good increases this year,” Russell Atkinson, the Director of Air Service Development for the Vancouver Airport Authority, told Daily Hive Urbanized in an interview this week.
More direct, non-stop routes to China
A sizeable portion of this renewed demand from Mainland China is now flowing through connections at Hong Kong International Airport (HKG), which currently sees 31 direct, non-stop, roundtrip flights per week reaching YVR. That includes 17 weekly flights on Cathay Pacific (multiple daily), seven on Air Canada (one daily), and seven on Hong Kong Airlines (one daily).
Hong Kong is considered separate from the Mainland China market, and its capacity to YVR has now fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels. This rebound was bolstered by Hong Kong Airlines, which relaunched service in January 2025 with two weekly roundtrips before expanding to daily flights in May 2025.
As for the Mainland China market, before the pandemic, YVR had nine routes served by eight different airlines. In 2019, there were a combined total of 56 direct, non-stop, roundtrip flights per week between Mainland China destinations and YVR, including seven serving Shanghai by Air Canada, seven serving Beijing by Air Canada, 11 serving Beijing by Air China, 11 serving Shanghai by China Eastern Airlines, 10 serving Guangzhou by China Southern Airlines, one serving Shenzhen by Hainan Airlines, three serving Chengdu by Sichuan Airlines, three serving Xiamen by Xiamen Airlines, and three serving Qingdao by Beijing Capital Airlines.
By late September 2025, there will be a total of nine routes served by eight airlines for a combined total of 28 direct, non-stop, roundtrip flights per week — just one fewer route, but 50 per cent as many flights as 2019.
Reaching YVR directly without stopping, China Southern is restarting its Guangzhou service two times weekly on Sept. 16, while China Eastern Airlines is restarting its Shanghai service two times weekly on Sept. 25.
The pre-pandemic service of three times weekly flights reaching Qingdao by Beijing Capital has yet to return, but its loss has been offset by the gain of China Eastern’s three times weekly service reaching Nanjing, which did not exist before the pandemic.
Other current Mainland China flights each week include seven reaching Shanghai by Air Canada, five reaching Beijing by Air Canada, three reaching Beijing by Air China, two reaching Shenzhen by Hainan, two reaching Chengdu by Sichuan, and two reaching Xiamen by Xiamen. Air China’s Beijing service increased from two to three flights per week on Aug. 27, 2025.
“China is not back to where it was prior to the pandemic, but it is nice to see the capacity returning. And meanwhile, seeing new points on the map and growth across Asia is really sort of a big part of our story right now,” Atkinson told Daily Hive Urbanized.
A comparison of Vancouver International Airport’s destinations and flight frequencies reaching Mainland China destinations. (Vancouver Airport Authority)
Other new routes to the Asia-Pacific
In addition to connections through Hong Kong, he specifically noted that many Mainland Chinese passengers are also reaching YVR through hubs such as Tokyo and Seoul, both of which offer frequent, high-capacity non-stop services to Vancouver.
This indicates a strong underlying demand for greater direct, non-stop capacity between Mainland China destinations and YVR and suggests the potential for significant latent demand.
In fact, both of these Japanese and South Korean hubs have recently seen major capacity increases from several carriers launching their very first services to YVR, bringing added competition to those routes.
Zipair, the low-cost carrier owned by Japan Airlines, launched service between YVR and Tokyo Narita International Airport in March 2024 with three weekly flights. The route has since expanded to five weekly flights, increasing to six per week during the busier months.
In July 2025, low-cost carrier T’Way Air launched its four-times-weekly service between YVR and Seoul Incheon International Airport (ICN).
Atkinson noted that Zipair and T’Way Air have seen immense early success, with T’Way Air notably seeing many tour groups travelling from South Korea.
Beyond foreign carriers, the expansion of Air Canada at YVR has also created new direct links to major Asian hubs that strategically provide ample connections to Southeast Asian, South Asian, Middle Eastern, and Australian destinations.
Since the pandemic, Air Canada has added permanent year-round services linking Vancouver with Singapore and Manila, along with new seasonal routes to Dubai and Bangkok. These additions have strengthened Air Canada’s strategy of developing YVR as its Trans-Pacific hub, while further supporting the airport authority’s overarching goal of positioning itself as the leading Trans-Pacific gateway for North America.
Air Canada’s service between Bangkok and Vancouver is the only direct, non-stop service between Thailand and North America. For this reason, says Atkinson, this service has been doing “exceptionally well.”
The most recent addition came in April 2025, when Air Canada launched its Manila service — the only direct, non-stop route to the Philippines operated by a Canadian carrier. This route is driven by strong demand from the large Filipino community in Canada, with high volumes of friends and relatives travelling between the two countries.
“It’s exactly the sort of thing we want to be seeing, which is more growth into markets in the ASEAN region where we see strong demographics and see strong trade opportunities and tourism opportunities as well,” he said.
Another major piece of YVR’s overall Asia-Pacific market is Australia, which has largely recovered its pre-pandemic capacity.
Air Canada currently operates two routes between Vancouver and Australia, with daily flights to both Brisbane and Sydney. Qantas Airways also serves the market three times weekly, increasing to daily service during the peak season later this year.
Qantas Airways has increased its YVR service levels compared to before the pandemic, but Air Canada has yet to relaunch its Melbourne service, which was initiated in late 2017 as a seasonal service before being upgraded to a year-round permanent service in mid-2018 due to high demand.
“We see a lot of demand from Melbourne, but it’s not back on the route map yet. But it’s certainly something we remain actively in conversations about,” Atkinson told Daily Hive Urbanized.
YVR is on track for an all-time record year in 2025
In total, over the course of July 2025, based on the latest available full passenger statistics, YVR saw 390,000 passengers for the Asia-Pacific market, representing a sharp increase of 14.1 per cent compared to July 2024. Moreover, over the first seven months of 2025, the Asia-Pacific routes have seen a total of 2.576 million passengers, representing a 15.5 per cent jump compared to the same period in 2024.
This marks a reversal from the earlier post-pandemic phase, when Asia-Pacific traffic at YVR was slower to rebound. Passenger volumes for Asia-Pacific are now approaching pre-pandemic levels; in YVR’s record-setting year of 2019, for example, the airport handled 430,000 passengers from this market in July alone.
The European market also saw some strong growth in July 2025, rising by 11.2 per cent year-over-year to 230,000 passengers over the course of the month. Over the first seven months of 2025, European routes have generated 1.006 million passengers, representing a 6.5 per cent increase compared to the first seven months of 2024.
YVR’s domestic traffic saw a five per cent increase in July 2025, with 1.306 million passengers recorded. Over the first seven months of 2025, domestic routes have produced 7.532 million passengers at YVR, representing a 3.1 per cent year-over-year increase.
Gains in the Asia-Pacific, European, and domestic markets have more than offset the relatively modest retraction in the number of passengers for the U.S. transborder market over the month of July 2025 and the first seven months of the year.
In the first seven months of 2025, YVR handled 15.529 million passengers — up 2.6 per cent from the same period in 2024, which ranked as the airport’s second-busiest year on record. Compared with the same stretch of its record-breaking 2019, YVR is already more than 232,000 passengers ahead — roughly equivalent to four full days of traffic.
So far in 2025, YVR has set all-time monthly passenger records in January, February, March, May, June, and July.
If this momentum continues, Vancouver’s airport is on track to surpass its all-time annual record of 26.38 million passengers set in 2019.
However, this outlook remains subject to change, as global economic and geopolitical uncertainty — combined with Canada’s weak domestic fundamentals — could temper demand in the months ahead. Passenger traffic also saw some brief impacts in August 2025 from Air Canada’s labour dispute, yet YVR is still on track to finish Summer 2025 as its busiest summer season ever.
While passenger trends often draw the most attention, Atkinson also pointed to YVR’s growing cargo volumes — moved not only by cargo-only air freighters, but also in the bellies of passenger aircraft, which is how most of the air cargo is transported. These shipments often include B.C. exports such as cherries, seafood, and other perishables.
In July 2025, YVR handled 32,608 tonnes of air cargo — one of the highest monthly tallies in the airport’s history and a 10.9 per cent increase over July 2024. For the first seven months of 2025, cargo volumes reached nearly 204,000 tonnes, up 6.5 per cent year-over-year. After setting a new annual record in 2024, YVR is now on track to break that record again in 2025.
Cathay Pacific plane at Vancouver International Airport. (oasisamuel/Shutterstock)
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