Pearson Airport in Mississauga is frequently recognized as Canada’s busiest airport, and recent statistics support this claim.

According to Statistics Canada’s latest annual report on airport activity, released earlier this month, passenger traffic at Pearson surged by 24.8% from 2022 to 2023. In total, approximately 43.7 million travelers passed through Pearson last year, up from 35 million in 2022.

The report noted that “as the world was eager to reconnect through air travel, Pearson continued to maintain its position as Canada’s busiest airport.” Growth in passenger traffic was robust across all sectors, with domestic traffic rising by 15.2%, transborder traffic increasing by 30.6%, and international traffic up by 31.6%.

Vancouver International Airport also saw significant growth, with a 30.3% increase in passenger numbers, making it the second-busiest airport in Canada. It recorded 24.3 million travelers in 2023, compared to 18.6 million in 2022.

Montréal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport ranked third with 20.4 million travelers (up from 15.5 million in 2022), while Calgary International Airport came in fourth with 18 million travelers, an increase of 28.2% from the previous year.

According to StatsCan, Canada’s four busiest airports accounted for 70.6% of all passenger traffic in the country, including 54.7% of all domestic traffic.

More broadly, StatsCan observed that air passenger traffic in Canada in 2023 reached nearly 93% of pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels, with the total number of passengers at Canadian airports rising year-over-year to 150.7 million.

The aviation report noted that “passenger confidence was strengthened in 2023, the first full year without any pandemic-related government travel restrictions.” It highlighted that the easing of pandemic-induced labor and supply challenges, along with the industry’s ability to provide more consistent service, contributed to the growing demand for travel.

While the demand for air travel remained strong in 2023, propelling the Canadian airline industry toward recovering its 2019 passenger traffic volume, it has yet to fully return to pre-pandemic levels. The report expressed optimism that passenger traffic could fully recover, as data from Canada’s eight largest airports indicates that passenger counts continue to rise in the first half of 2024.

In May, Pearson executives noted similar trends reflecting a resurgence in air travel. Deborah Flint, president and CEO of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, which operates Pearson, stated that numbers from the first three months of 2024 pointed to a positive outlook. She characterized January through March as a period of “strong passenger growth, enabled by” the ongoing resilience of the air travel sector.

Flint also mentioned that “our financial performance continues to strengthen, along with improved customer experience and operational performance, as evidenced by a six percent increase in on-time performance (departures) compared to the same period in 2023.”