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Vancouver airport sees major capacity boost to Japan and South Korea

All Nippon Airways doubles summer service to Tokyo; capacity to both countries up 14% as Asia-Pacific traffic surges.

· 2 min read · HOC Vancouver Desk
Vancouver airport sees major capacity boost to Japan and South Korea
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Vancouver International Airport is capitalizing on the FIFA World Cup surge with expanded service to Asia. All Nippon Airways quietly launched additional summer seasonal service between YVR and Tokyo Narita, operating one daily roundtrip flight throughout June, July, and August—effectively doubling ANA's capacity serving the airport.

This new route supplements ANA's existing year-round daily service to Tokyo Haneda, giving the airline two major Tokyo gateways from Vancouver. Combined with existing service from Japan Airlines (seven weekly flights to Narita, year-round), Zipair (five weekly to Narita), and Air Canada (seven weekly to Narita plus four seasonal flights to Osaka), Vancouver now enjoys exceptionally strong connections to Japan.

Air Canada is also launching a new winter seasonal service between YVR and Sapporo's Chitose Hokkaido Airport starting December 17, 2026, running through March 2027.

South Korea is showing equally strong growth. Capacity between YVR and Seoul Incheon International Airport is up 24 percent for the full year, with service from Air Canada (seven weekly roundtrips), Korean Air (14 weekly), and discount carrier T'way Air (three weekly).

For July 2026 specifically, capacity to Japan climbs 18 percent year-over-year; to South Korea and Japan combined, it's up 11 percent. The Vancouver Airport Authority reports Asia-Pacific traffic has become the airport's strongest growth engine, with March 2026 seeing 447,000 Asia-Pacific passengers—the same volume as U.S. transborder traffic, which actually declined 5.5 percent in the same month.