Canada’s airports saw record improvements in delays, NAV Canada says

There was good news for travellers this summer as delays on Canada’s busiest airports saw record improvements.

There was sharp improvement in service delivery at four of Canada’s biggest airports between May and August this year, NAV Canada said in a statement Monday.

NAC Canada, the body responsible for air traffic control in the country, reported data from Toronto Pearson, Montréal-Trudeau, Calgary and Vancouver International Airports.

The number of scheduled flights that were impacted by a delay was down 85 per cent from May 1 to Aug. 31, 2026, compared to the same period in 2025, NAV Canada said.

This period coincided with the FIFA World Cup in July which saw visitors from all over the world arrive in Canada amid record-low airport delays, the agency said.

During this period in 2025, 4,996 flights, or 1.54 per cent of all flights at these airports, were hit with delays. This year, that number fell to 769 flights, or 0.24 per cent of all scheduled flights, NAV Canada said.

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This came as the volume of flights at the four major airports went up this summer. They collectively handled 394,919 flights this summer, up 0.9 per cent compared to the same period in 2025.

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Every one of the four major airports saw improvements, with Vancouver recording the sharpest improvement. In the summer of 2025, 4.42 per cent of all flights out of Vancouver were hit by delays. This year, that figure was down to 0.64 per cent.

Toronto Pearson was the best performing airport when it came to share of flights delayed, with only 0.04 per cent of flights being impacted by delays, down from 0.24 per cent in 2025.

This was followed by Calgary at 0.05 per cent, down from 1.16 per cent, and Montreal-Trudeau at 0.28 per cent, down from 1.16 per cent.

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Canada’s airports still have a staffing shortage of air traffic controllers, but the staffing gap narrowed between May and August. In the spring, Canada was short of 200 air traffic control staff. In August, this number was down to 170, NAV Canada said.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the federal government is moving ahead with plans to attract private investment in Canada’s four largest airports.

The new model will be based on “best practice in other countries” and the federal government will retain ownership of the underlying land and assets, Carney said.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the federal government is moving ahead with plans to attract private investment in Canada’s four largest airports.

The new model will be based on “best practice in other countries” and the federal government will retain ownership of the underlying land and assets, Carney said.

As of 2020, nearly 20 per cent of the airports in the world had been privatized. A 2022 study in the U.S.-based non-profit National Bureau of Economic Research compared the performance of 2,444 airports around the world in 217 countries.

The report found that the number of passengers per flight – a key metric when assessing airport efficiency – increased by 20 per cent when private equity funds buy government-owned airports and overall passenger traffic rises by 84 per cent.

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Airports also get bigger with private equity funds as owners, the report found, with private owners adding new terminals and gates. The study also found fewer flight cancellations.

However, flying may get more expensive as the fees that airports charge to airlines tend to rise after an airport is privatized, the report added. The rise in the number of privately owned airports was also associated with a push for deregulation and pushback against government controls, such as caps or limits on fees.