New data from multiple sources show that the trend of British Columbians travelling less across the border to the U.S. is continuing – by land and by air.
The clearest indication of this is new data from the Cascade Gateway Border Data Warehouse, showing that southbound traffic by vehicles with B.C. licence plates at four main land-border crossings was down 42.8 per cent in June, falling from 206,978 to 118,292 year over year.
Travel across the border by all other personal vehicles was also down, falling 8.4 per cent from 110,912 in June 2024 to 101,642 vehicles in last month. That hints that U.S. vehicles may also be making fewer trips.
In total, 219,934 personal vehicles travelled south through the Peace Arch, Pacific Highway, Lynden and Sumas points of entry in June. That was down 30.8 per cent compared with June 2024.
The research showed that crossings by vehicles with B.C. plates started the year on a strong note: up 10 per cent to 158,766 vehicles in January. Each month since has seen significant double-digit-percentage declines.
The year-over-year decline in B.C.-plated passenger vehicles heading south at those four border crossings was:
- 29 per cent in February;
- 43 per cent in March;
- 51 per cent in April;
- .
U.S. President Donald Trump in January had already mused about Canada becoming the 51st state but had yet to implement tariffs.
On Feb. 1, Trump ordered 25-per-cent tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada, starting Feb. 4. While he paused those tariffs for 30 days, and then exempted goods compliant with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico trade deal, his actions ignited much nationalistic sentiment in Canada, . One consequence has been less desire to travel to the U.S.
Vancouver International Airport sees more passengers in May, despite slide in passengers on U.S.-bound flights
The Vancouver Airport Authority Thursday for traffic in May, which similarly backed up the trend of less demand for flights out of Vancouver International Airport (YVR) to U.S. destinations.
The VAA found that what it calls "transborder" traffic was down 9.6 per cent in May, falling to 531,082 passengers, from 587,758 such passengers in May 2024.
"It's no secret that demand between Canada and the U.S. is down compared to where airlines would expect it to be," Flair Airlines Ltd. vice-president of commercial operations .
The VAA told BIV in an email that overall passenger traffic increased to 2,283,474, or up about 1.5 per cent in May, compared with the same month in 2024. That included:
- Domestic passenger counts up鈥�2.6 per cent;
- Asia Pacific passenger counts up鈥�19.8 per cent;
- Europe passenger counts up 0.1 per cent; and
- Latin America passenger counts down鈥�0.1 per cent.
The surge in passenger travel to destinations in the Asia-Pacific region was in part due to Air Canada launching thrice-weekly, non-stop flights to Manila out of YVR in early April, said Russell Atkinson, YVR's director of air-service development. Those flights are on top of daily service on that route via Philippine Airlines.
Zipair Tokyo Inc. was another airline that increased its service in May versus May 2024. It launched flights between YVR and Tokyo in March 2024 at three times per week. Frequency then increased to four, and then five times per week in May.
Air Canada's (TSX:AC) flight frequency to Osaka increased from three times per week in May 2024 to four times weekly in 2025.
Visitors from mainland China are leading the surge in travel to YVR from within the Asia-Pacific region.
Back in October 2024, some weeks had airports.
Flight frequency has surged since then.
There were 21 flights between YVR and mainland China per week each way in January before falling back to be 20 flights each way per week in March, according to the Vancouver Airport Authority.
The schedule out of YVR is now:
- Sichuan Airlines twice weekly to Chengdu;
- Air Canada four times weekly to Beijing;
- Air Canada seven times weekly to Shanghai;
- Air China four times weekly to Beijing;
- Hainan Airlines once per week to Shenzhen; and
- Xiamen Airlines twice per week to Xiamen.
One country where nationals have been visiting B.C. with much less frequency is India.
Air India Ltd. had been flying daily between Delhi and YVR. It now flies that route five times per week each way.
The most recent Statistics Canada data for international visitors to Canada through B.C. entry points is for April. Crown corporation Destination British Columbia processes the data and provides more fulsome breakdowns.
Its most recent report was , and it showed visits by Indian citizens to Canada via B.C. entry points were down 25.9 per cent year over year in the month. That followed a 22.8-per-cent , year over year, and a 24.7-per-cent year-over-year .
