Busiest day of December coming up at Vancouver airport

The Vancouver airport is seeing an uptick in travellers this holiday season, as overall passenger traffic inches closer to pre-pandemic numbers.

“The domestic travel levels are higher than they were pre-pandemic, our U.S. departures and arrivals are almost equal,” said Tamara Vrooman, president and CEO of Vancouver International Airport.

But international travel levels continue to lag behind pre-pandemic numbers, Vrooman said.

Over the next week, YVR is expected to see an average of 70,000 travellers per day, peaking on Friday – likely to be the airport's busiest day of the month – with nearly 75,000 people flying in or out.

Christmas Day should see close to 65,000 travellers, while Boxing Day is expected to see upwards of 68,000.

“In the month of December we’re expecting about two million passengers, which is about 250,000 more than we saw in the same month last year,” said Vrooman.

In December 2022, Vancouver was hit hard by a snowstorm that left many travellers stranded for days.

YVR also experienced delays this year due to staffing shortages with security screeners and air traffic controllers. Vrooman said labour numbers across the sector are not ideal, but they have improved.

“There’s nothing that we’ve seen in our discussions with our partners that would lead us to think there would be issues because of staffing delays," she said.

While this week's mild Vancouver weather shouldn’t result in any delays, Vrooman said Toronto and Calgary –the two most popular departure points for incoming flights – could see delays due to snowy weather.

She added that people can save time by pre-booking parking and using YVR Express to book a place in pre-board screening. She also advised people not to bring wrapped gifts through security, as they could be flagged and opened in the screening process, causing delays in the lineup.

YVR suggests travellers flying internationally arrive three hours before their flight, and for domestic travellers to arrive two hours early.