The busiest airports in Canada are, of course, located in its major metropolitan areas. Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal have airports that handled over five million passengers in 2021, while smaller cities such as Edmonton, Winnipeg and Ottawa were home to airports processing between one and five million passengers in 2021. Here, in reverse order, are the top five:

6 Edmonton International Airport (YEG) - 2.8 million passengers

Edmonton has long been an important hub for Canada, serving around eight million passengers per year for the past decade. Unfortunately for the airport, the pandemic knocked the wind out of its sails significantly, with just 2.6 million passengers passing through in 2020, rising just a little to 2.8 million in 2021.

Nevertheless, Edmonton has an exceptional variety of routes on offer, from local connections to Abbotsford, Charlottetown, Fort McMurray, Hamilton and many more, alongside long haul routes to the likes of Jamaica, Mexico, Hawaii and across the Atlantic to Amsterdam. It is a hub for Flair and Swoop, as well as an important focus city for WestJet.

5 Montreal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL) - 5.2 million passengers

Montreal-Trudeau (YUL) lost its third place spot as Calgary overtook it this past year. Since Montreal is located fairly close to Toronto, Air Canada only serves select international destinations from here. In addition, Montreal is also served by a whole host of international airlines, such as Air France, Royal Air Maroc and Tunisair.

Due to its French influences, Montreal is linked to many French-speaking countries and cities, such as Paris, Lyon, Nantes, Nice, Bordeaux, Brussels, Casablanca and Tunis. Other notable routes include Air China's fifth-freedom route from Beijing-Capital (PEK) to Havana (HAV), which is operated via Montreal (YUL).

4 Calgary International Airport (YYC) - 6.3 million passengers

The situation at YYC last year saw the number of passengers rising by 11.5%. This can be attributed to WestJet's huge presence at the airport, serving many American and European destinations from Calgary, such as Denver (DEN), San Diego (SAN), Amsterdam (AMS) and Rome (FCO). In addition, several Hawaiian cities also have direct flights from YYC, including Honolulu (HNL), Kailua-Kona (KOA) and Lihue (LIH), albeit on a seasonal basis.

3 Vancouver International Airport (YVR) - 7.0 million passengers

Vancouver, Canada's main port on the Pacific coast, also serves as its gateway to the Asia-Pacific region, with destinations such as Hong Kong (HKG), Tokyo (NRT/HND) and Shanghai (PVG) served multiple times daily. Many international airlines could also be found in Vancouver, such as British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Lufthansa.

American, Delta and United all serve Vancouver from their Pacific hubs of Los Angeles (LAX), Seattle (SEA) and San Francisco (SFO) respectively, where most passengers then transfer onto flights bound for their final destinations. Unfortunately, due to pandemic restrictions in Asia, and lower demand for travel, the number of passengers traveling to and from YVR decreased by 3% from 2020 to 2021.

2 Toronto-Pearson International Airport (YYZ) - 12.7 million passengers

Unsurprisingly, Canada's largest city had its busiest airport. Toronto-Pearson (YYZ), Air Canada's major hub on the Atlantic coast, has routes to many destinations around Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America.

Due to close economic ties between the United States and Canada, Toronto also has links to many American cities, ranging from metropolises such as New York (JFK/LGA/EWR), Chicago (ORD) and San Francisco (SFO), to mid-sized cities such as Hartford, CT (BDL) and Milwaukee, WI (MIL).

European destinations such as London (LHR) and Paris (CDG) are linked by multiple daily flights, but other cities like Edinburgh (EDI), Bucharest (OTP) and Barcelona (BCN) are only served seasonally.

In addition to traffic to and from the city, YYZ is also a major transit hub for passengers entering and exiting Canada, as well as for domestic passengers to get to smaller cities such as Windsor, ON and Charlottetown, PE.

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The best of the rest

If you're left wondering where your local airport comes in the list, here are the rest of the top 10 for comparison...

6. Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport (YWG) - 1.2 million passengers

7. Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport (YOW) - 1.2 million passengers

8. Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ) - 1.1 million passengers

9. Kelowna International Airport (YLW) - 800,000 passengers

10. Victoria International Airport (YYJ) - 700,000 passengers

Did you fly from any of these airports recently? Let us know in the comments.