DH Urbanized
Kenneth Chan
24 Dec 2025
On a typical month in 2025, more than two million people passed through Vancouver International Airport (YVR) on their way to destinations across Asia, Oceania, Europe, and the Americas — unaware of the quiet economics that help keep so many of those flights in the air.
According to the latest global air cargo report by International Air Transport Association (IATA), over the period from January to October 2025, belly-hold cargo in commercial passenger aircraft accounted for 54.3 per cent of total international freight — representing an increase from the same period in 2024 — with the remaining 45.7 per cent carried by air freighters, such as the planes flown by FedEx, UPS, Purolator, DHL, Cargojet, Amazon Air, and other operators.
In contrast, according to Vancouver Airport Authority, in 2024, about 60 per cent of YVR’s air cargo was moved in the bellies of commercial passenger aircraft, while the remaining 40 per cent were moved on dedicated air freighters.
Over this period, according to IATA, global air cargo volumes in the belly-hold of commercial passenger aircraft grew by 6.4 per cent year-over-year.
For the same geographic reasons YVR has become a Trans-Pacific hub for passengers travelling between Asia and Oceania and North America, it is also a pivotal hub for cargo — just like Canada’s largest port, the Port of Vancouver, handling of cargo by ships.
YVR’s 2024 cargo volumes represent a strong 8.6 per cent year-over-year growth — well above that year’s national average increase of 5.2 per cent...
How cargo is driving Vancouver airport's growth beyond passenger travel | Urbanized | 24 Dec 2025
