Travel to U.S. from Canada drops again as domestic trips rise

The number of people travelling from Canada to the U.S. dropped in April, while domestic travel jumped compared with last year, new Statistics Canada data shows.

Domestic travel is increasing at Canada’s airports, new Statistics Canada travel data shows, while the number of people travelling by air to the U.S. dropped in April.

The data released Monday looked at the total number of passengers who passed through pre-board security screening at Canada’s eight largest airports, finding a total of 4.5 million people made their way through those checkpoints, a 3.6 per cent overall increase from April last year.

However, the number of those travelling to the U.S. dropped — again — as the U.S. trade war continues.

The agency found that of these travellers, 1.1 million were those heading to the U.S., also known as “transborder” traffic.

That figure was 5.8 per cent lower than the number seen in the same month last year.

Statistics Canada notes it’s also the third consecutive month of year-over-year decreases to the U.S., and compared with pre-pandemic levels in April 2019, transborder passenger counts were down 12.5 per cent.

Monday’s newly released data encompasses both Canadian and non-Canadian screened residents.

In April of this year, the data shows air travellers to the U.S. accounted for 25.5 per cent of the total number of screened passengers, but that number is a drop from 28.1 per cent last year.