YVR flights to mainland China surge 40% as governments lift travel barriers

Vancouver International Airport will see 32 weekly non-stop flights to mainland China in November, up from 23 in November 2025 — a nearly 40 per cent increase driven by government agreements and airline expansion.

All six new weekly flights allocated to Canadian airports under an April agreement between the Canadian and Chinese governments were routed to YVR. Beijing Capital Airlines, which flew out of Vancouver before the pandemic, plans to restart non-stop flights on October 2 with one weekly service to Qingdao. That addition brings the number of airlines flying YVR-China routes back to eight, the same count as before the pandemic.

Air Canada is increasing non-stop flights between YVR and Beijing to seven per week in November, up from four in the same month last year, while maintaining seven weekly flights to Shanghai. Air China is adding capacity on its Beijing route, moving from three flights per week in autumn last year to five starting September 29. China Southern plans to launch October 25 with four weekly flights to Guangzhou, up from two flights previously.

"We will increase our service gradually over time," Tamara Vrooman, CEO of Vancouver Airport Authority, said in Business in Vancouver. However, Vrooman does not expect YVR to return to the pre-pandemic pace of 55 combined non-stop flights per week to mainland China any time soon.

The expansion reflects warming bilateral travel ties. China reinstated Canada on its approved-destination-status list in November 2025, which permits Chinese group tours to enter Canada. Earlier this year, China announced that Canadian passport holders can travel to China visa-free for the remainder of 2026. Yet recovery remains uneven: in July, Chinese citizens entered Canada through B.C. entry points, down 6.9 per cent year-over-year and down 55.4 per cent compared with June 2019 — pre-pandemic levels.