Vancouver International Airport

Vancouver International is Canada's second-busiest airport and the primary trans-Pacific gateway for North America's west coast, handling 26.4M passengers (2024). Built on Sea Island at the mouth of the Fraser River — elevation just 14 ft (4 m) — the airport sits on a 1,300-hectare site that is technically sovereign Musqueam First Nation territory, making YVR the only major hub in the G20 operated on leased Indigenous land. Air Canada runs its western hub here with roughly 250 daily departures, and YVR is the carrier's primary Asia-Pacific gateway: nonstops serve Tokyo–Narita and Haneda, Seoul–Incheon, Hong Kong, Taipei, Shanghai, Beijing, Delhi, and Sydney. WestJet maintains a major base, and the airport is the largest foreign station for Cathay Pacific, Korean Air, EVA Air, and Philippine Airlines. Across 66 airlines the airport serves 138 destinations on 309 scheduled routes, with the trans-Pacific share — roughly 30% of seat capacity — exceeding any North American airport outside LAX and SFO. Three runways handle operations: primary 08R/26L at 11,500 ft (3,505 m), parallel 08L/26R at 9,940 ft (3,030 m), and crosswind 13/31 at 7,300 ft (2,225 m). The terminal complex integrates domestic, U.S. transborder, and international piers under one roof — YVR was the first airport globally to co-locate U.S. CBP preclearance with domestic check-in, allowing transborder passengers to clear U.S. customs before boarding. Canada Line SkyTrain inaugurated direct urban rail service in 2009, making YVR one of the few North American airports connected to downtown in under 30 minutes. A $9.1B capital plan through 2037 adds a new international pier, a parallel taxiway system, and widebody-capable gates for eVTOL and sustainable aviation fuel operations.