While April was a busy month for Canada’s airports, fewer travellers flew to the United States, a new report suggests. This comes in the wake of turbulence from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs war and annexation threats.
The number of passengers at Canadian airports who were screened to travel to the U.S. plunged in April, compared to a year ago, for the third straight month. However, traffic was up year-over-year for those who travelled domestically or internationally to non-U.S. destinations, Statistics Canada found in a new report released Monday.Transborder traffic to the U.S. saw 1.1 million visitors in April, down 5.8 per cent from the same period last year, according to the data. The numbers were lower by 12.5 per cent compared to April 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, domestic passenger traffic in April was up by 7.4 per cent to two million compared to April 2024. This was also up 1.5 per cent compared to April 2019.
The number of passengers screened for international travel outside the U.S. rose by 7.1 per cent year-over-year in April to 1.4 million. What’s more, the April number was significantly higher by 19 per cent compared to April 2019.
Additionally, Canada’s eight largest airports had more passenger traffic year-over-year.
The country’s major airports screened 4.5 million passengers this April, compared to the same period last year. That’s 3.6 per cent higher than in April 2024 and 1.9 per cent higher than in April 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Statistics Canada didn’t provide reasons behind the numbers in its report. The dip in U.S. travel comes as many Canadians have been boycotting American travel and products because of Trump’s tariffs and threats to make Canada the 51st state, and the Canadian government has warned about stricter scrutiny at the border.
“It’s not all too surprising, just given the political climate between the U.S. and Canada,” Ryan Ewing, founder of the airline blog AirlineGeeks.com, said in a Zoom interview Monday from Austin, Texas with CTVNews.ca. Ewing spoke on the possible reasons behind the dip in U.S. air travel, noting the tariffs Trump imposed on Canada and strong rhetoric from the U.S. didn’t help “morale” among Canadian travellers.
“I think what you’re also seeing is pretty big reduction in Canadian point-of-sale travellers, meaning people who are from Canada coming to the United States,” Ewing said. “It’s not so much the case that Americans going to Canada.”
John Gradek, a lecturer in aviation management at McGill University in Montreal, believes the trend won’t end anytime soon.
“I think that you’re going to see more and more Canadians travelling domestically, travelling internationally and avoiding U.S. travel,” Gradek said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca on Monday. “I think it’s a trend we started seeing in February after we started to have these statements coming out of the White House about Canada becoming a 51st state.”
Gradek believes news about tighter scrutiny at the border with U.S. officials checking electronic devices, and tourists detained or turned back at the border, are also factors.
“Canadians are basically starting to get nervous about travelling to the U.S.,” he added.
