PHOTO: Aerial view of Toronto Pearson International Airport. (Photo via Wikipedia)

Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR) remain favourite airports for passengers travelling to and from the United States, according to research released by the United States Department of Commerce’s National Travel & Tourism Office.

Canada’s busiest airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport maintained a firm toehold as the second-busiest airport for U.S. connections, handling 12.37 million passengers between the U.S. and Canada in 2015. Although London Heathrow (LHR), which handled 14.8 million passengers between London and the United States last year, remains firmly in first place, the Canadian airport is slowly but surely gaining on LHR.

Since 2013, Toronto Pearson has seen a jump of nearly 19 per cent in connecting passengers to and from the United States, while connections through London Heathrow only grew a modest 5 per cent during that same period.

Vancouver International Airport maintained its position as the ninth-busiest airport for US connections, handling 5.26 million international passengers travelling to and from the United States in 2015. Since 2013, Vancouver has also seen its traffic to and from the U.S. increase by nearly 19 per cent.

Overall air traffic to and from all Canadian airports accounted for 28.2 million passengers, reflecting an increase of three per cent over the previous year. Not surprisingly, travel by Canadian and international passengers transiting through Canada remained flat—likely dampened at least in part by the weakened loonie—accounting for just less than 20 million passengers. On the other hand, 8.2 million U.S. citizens travelled to and through Canada, a growth of 29 per cent over the previous year.

Travel on U.S.-flagged carriers to and from Canada accounted for 11.7 million passengers, down five per cent over last year. Foreign flags, including Air Canada, transported 16.5 million passengers, up nine per cent over last year.

In total, the survey found that all international air traffic to and from the United States totaled 209.1 million passengers in 2015, a six per cent increase over the previous year. Travel by U.S. citizens increased by 8 per cent, while travel by non-U.S. citizens increased by four per cent.

Top International Airports
(Passenger Traffic to/from Foreign Airports):

1. London Heathrow (LHR); 14.80
2. Toronto (YYZ); 12.371
3. Tokyo Narita (NRT); 9.289
4. Cancun (CUN); 8.253
5. Paris/de Gaulle (CDG); 7.028
6. Mexico City (MEX); 7.012
7. Frankfurt (FRA); 6.818
8. Incheon (ICN); 6.005
9. Vancouver (YVR); 5.26
10. Amsterdam (AMS); 4.893

Top 10 U.S. Airports
(Passenger Traffic to/from Foreign Airports):

1. New York (JFK); 30.438
2. Miami (MIA); 21.3
3. Los Angeles (LAX); 20.866
4. Chicago (ORD); 12.112
5. Newark (EWR); 11.97
6. San Francisco (SFO); 11.264
7. Atlanta (ATL); 11.196
8. Houston (IAH); 10.705
9. Dallas-Ft Worth (DFW); 7.89
10. Washington Dulles (IAD); 7.224

Top 10 Airlines Serving U.S. International Non-Stop Markets:

1. United Airlines; 30.504
2. Delta Air Lines; 24.118
3. *American Airlines; 24.049
4. British Airways; 7.228
5. JetBlue Airways; 6.432
6. *US Airways; 6.197
7. Lufthansa; 5.693
8. WestJet; 4.326
9. Air Canada (mainline); 4.049
10. Air France; 3.717

*American Airlines and US Airways merged in October 2015

All passenger counts are in the millions and reflect only traffic to/from the United States.

For more information, visit http://travel.trade.gov/tinews/archive/index.html.

Follow @MonicaPoling