Record three million passengers expected at Vancouver International Airport during the holiday travel season
Breaking it down by market, YVR is anticipating 1.79 million domestic passengers, 910,000 non-U.S. international passengers, and 307,000 U.S. transborder passengers.
The top travel destination this holiday travel season is Toronto, followed by Calgary, Edmonton, Kelowna, Montreal, Hong Kong, San Francisco, Victoria, Los Angeles, and Seattle.
Over the period, the average number of passengers going through YVR per day is 70,000. The busiest days for travel are anticipated to be Dec. 18 (Thursday) with 76,900, Dec. 29 (Monday) with 75,500, Dec. 22 (Monday) with 75,400, Dec. 15 (Friday) with 74,700, and Dec. 21 (Sunday) with 74,400.
Just in time for the busy holiday travel period, YVR has fully reopened the ABC South security checkpoint in the domestic terminal with new generation security screening machines, enabling passengers to keep liquids, gels, aerosols, and electronics inside their carry-on baggage. The expanded use of this equipment — first introduced at another domestic screening checkpoint in September 2024 — simplifies and speeds up the screening process. In 2026, these machines will be rolled out to all security checkpoints across the airport, including the non-U.S. international and U.S. transborder areas.
More broadly, YVR could reach a new all-time record for annual passenger volumes in 2025, based on the latest available statistics.
Over the first 10 months of 2025, YVR recorded a total of 22.756 million passengers — a 3.1 per cent increase from the 22.072 million passengers recorded over the same period in 2024. This is also 1.8 per cent higher than the 22.347 million passengers recorded over the first 10 months of 2019, which ended with an all-time annual record of 26.38 million passengers. And it follows 2024’s annual tally of 26.2 million passengers, which was YVR’s second-best year ever.
If the trend continues, YVR could potentially hit a new annual record, reaching nearly 27 million passengers in 2025.
For the month of October 2025, the latest month with available full statistics, YVR saw 2.244 million passengers — up from 2.108 million in October 2024, 2.094 million in October 2023, and 2.065 million in October 2019.
Additionally, YVR could potentially see a new all-time record for cargo volumes, with 290,000 tonnes of cargo already logged for the first 10 months of 2025. It could break the previous annual record made in 2024 with 339,000 tonnes. YVR notes that the winter holiday season is a busier time for cargo operations, with higher imports driven by high consumer demand over the holidays, beginning with Black Friday and through Christmas and the new year.
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