Domestic travel increased 3.3 per cent in July from the same month a year prior as trans-border traffic to the U.S. tumbled, new data from Statistics Canada shows.
With trans-border screen passenger traffic down by 8.7 per cent in July, the agency notes this number was “well below the same month in 2024,” which was 12.5 per cent.
A nearly one per cent decline was observed in July from the same time a year prior, with three of the largest airports noting losses in July 2026 being Vancouver International (-4.5 per cent), Montréal/Pierre Elliott Trudeau International (-2.0 per cent) and Calgary International (-0.1 per cent).
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In addition, July 2024’s international screened passenger counts grew 6.2 per cent from July 2023, with trans-border passenger traffic considered by Statistics Canada to be “fully recovered” at the time as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Canadians were beginning to travel to the U.S. again following 15 months of consecutive low travel rates due to tensions between the neighbouring countries, with April being the first month in which travel to the U.S. saw an increase since January 2025.
The low travel resulted in Canadian spending on travel to the U.S. going down by $3.3 billion in 2025 amid the ‘Buy Canadian’ movement, with separate Statistics Canada data stating that “Canadians shifted outbound leisure travel away from the United States (-21.5 per cent; -3.2 million visits) in favour of overseas options (+12.2 per cent; +1.1 million visits).”
In total, Canadian travel spending to the U.S. equaled $18.8 billion in 2025, while spending on overseas travel came to $81.3 billion.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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