CANADA. Vancouver International airport experienced a -3.9% drop in total passenger volumes in 2002 as total departures and arrivals came to 14,877,536 for the year. December traffic posted a rise of +4.3% to 1,158,242, including a +7.4% return of US scheduled traffic and steady growth of +7.2% in international traffic overall.
The main contributing factors to the annual decline were a -74.4% collapse in transborder (US) charter traffic, a -50.4% drop in domestic charter traffic and somewhat depressed numbers in almost all other sectors. However Asia Pacific traffic rose +4.9% in the year and traffic on long-haul scheduled routes other than Europe or Asia also increased +20.4% from a low base.
