As YVR rebounds from pandemic passenger and revenue losses, its future will look different: a greater reliance on cargo and more contactless security screening for passengers
Jessica Yip’s fingers dance across the interactive screen of a small electric vehicle as she selects from a list of retail stores, then the robot drives itself to her chosen destination inside Vancouver’s airport.
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At roughly the size of a single-seat golf cart, this “micromobility pod” can be stopped or sped up with a swipe of its screen. There is no steering wheel or brake. YVR passengers can scan their boarding passes to be taken to their gate, or choose a shop or service from the menu.
“Maybe they want to grab a coffee … or need to use the washroom. So they would just use the touch screen, select their language, select where they want to go, and then the pod will take them there autonomously,” said Yip, co-founder of Vancouver’s A&K Robotics, which created the artificial intelligence-enabled vehicle.
Since July, there have been two A&K Cruz Mobility pods inside YVR’s international terminal, and the goal is to have 10 later this year. Passengers can hop on free if they need assistance manoeuvring the recently expanded terminal, which now stretches nearly a kilometre from the screening area to the farthest gate.
“We’re gradually increasing the footprint that these robots are operating in,” said Yip, “to really figure out how a technology like this can work well in an airport.”
These pods are among the futuristic additions to Canada’s second-busiest airport. As the airport approaches its 100th birthday, it is making major changes to rebound from revenue and passenger losses during the pandemic.
Although the number of people travelling through the airport in 2024 nearly reached pre-pandemic levels, YVR enters this year facing obstacles: flights south of the border could dwindle due to the U.S. tariff dispute and the impacts of the climate crisis require significant spending on its land and operations.
In a wide-ranging interview, YVR CEO Tamara Vrooman said government regulations must be more progressive to bolster the return of airline passengers, such as making it easier for airports to use digital tools to speed up screening and boarding.
“We would like facial recognition and allowing more digitization for the throughput of passengers at the airport,” she said. “We see that in Europe. We see that in the United States. We see that in Asia. We see that in Mexico. But we don’t yet have that ability in Canada.”
Moving people, though, is not the only focus of YVR’s future.
In 2024, it set a record for the amount of cargo that travelled through the airport, narrowly surpassing its top year in 2018.
Vrooman is looking for environmentally friendly and low-noise ways to expand this diversification of YVR’s business. The airport and the province, she said, are studying the feasibility of “the first air to marine” system for parcels.
“Could we move cargo directly from aircraft to battery-fuelled river barges that could take cargo up and down the arms of the Fraser, and short haul over to Nanaimo, with no noise and without disrupting habitats and fish? That would take a lot of trucks off the road,” she said.
Trump’s tariffs may cause headwinds
A series of world events, starting with the COVID-19 pandemic, has changed passengers’ frequency and type of air travel. This brought turbulence to the balance sheets of airports around the globe, experts say, forcing them to pursue these types of innovations.
“We are talking about resilience: how to make airports more resilient to external shocks,” said Anming Zhang, a University of B.C. business professor with an expertise in transport economics and policy.
YVR had a 70 per cent drop in airline passengers in 2020 and lost $380 million that year, he said. Its overall debt is about $1.5 billion.
Rebounding from the pandemic years, Zhang said, was challenging for several reasons: Russia, angry at allied nations for supporting Ukraine, closed its airspace to Canadian aircraft, making some transatlantic flights far longer, COVID restrictions drastically reduced YVR’s popular Canada-to-China flights, and high interest rates have made families think twice about vacations.
There could be new concerns as well in 2025, if patriotic Canadians are reluctant to fly to the U.S. given President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“These tariffs certainly will put some negative pressure on traffic,” said Zhang, who also holds the Vancouver Airport Authority chair in air transportation.
More than 26 million people got on or off a plane at YVR in 2024, a five per cent jump over 2023 — and just 100,000 short of the peak set in 2019. Vrooman projected a four per cent growth for 2025 but conceded that estimate could go down because of the U.S. trade war.
A recent tour revealed some of those changes at the airport, which opened in 1931 with a small wooden building beside a single runway at what is now the South Terminal.
The expanded international terminal, where eight gates were recently added to accommodate more wide-body aircraft, offers a multi-faith prayer room with a foot bath; more local food vendors, such as Vancouver’s Salmon n’ Bannock; and a washroom for service animals, complete with an Astroturf mat and a disposal box for waste bags.
A new $30-million security area in domestic departures, partly funded by the federal government, is the first in Canada to use space-age-looking screening machines with powerful X-rays that can peer inside carry-on bags — eliminating the need for electronics and liquids to be removed for screening.
The technology allows passengers to get through security 50 per cent faster, said Alyssa Smith, YVR communications manager.
The airport is also trying to improve efficiency, Smith said, by scheduling extra staff during the three busiest times of every day: 6 to 8 a.m., 1 to 3 p.m., and 7 to 9 p.m.
On the day Postmedia visited, a guitar player belted out the Eagles’ 1972 hit Take it Easy near the packed check-in desks, perhaps offering some sage advice for passengers heading to U.S. Customs.
James Teskey was trying to take it easy, as he attempted to nap during a lengthy layover between his arrival from Hong Kong and his departing flight to Edmonton.
The heavy equipment operator was lying on a hard wooden bench, too short to be a bed. Other international airports, Teskey complained, have free public showers and long, padded seats.
“I have 20 hours here waiting for my next flight, and this is the most comfortable spot,” the Grand Forks resident said with a good-natured laugh. “They need to improve the benches.”
A YVR employee told Teskey showers were available in all-inclusive lounges, which cost about $50 for a person to enter.
I have 20 hours here waiting for my next flight, and this is the most comfortable spot.
James Teskey, traveller
Just down the hallway, Natasha Schooten rested on a chair after arriving from Hawaii, her inflamed knee in a large brace and her hand gripping a cane. The airport cart holding her luggage was awkward for her to push.
“It’s hard to get access to help,” she said.
Schooten booked disability assistance with the airline that flew her from Hawaii. But once the staff from that carrier delivered her to arrivals, she was on her own to get to the South Terminal, where she was catching a short flight home to Keremeos on a different airline.
Smith said the airport has made improvements for passengers with disabilities, including a curbside greeting program outside international arrivals, sign language on gate screens, and a washroom with a hoist and adjustable changing bench.
Skytrax, an international organization that rates airports on facilities, security and other issues, rated YVR with four out of five stars.
Despite their complaints, both Teskey and Schooten agreed the Vancouver terminal was clean and attractive. “I was in the L.A. airport. This one is 10 times better,” Schooten said.
I was in the L.A. airport. This one is 10 times better.
Natasha Schooten, traveller
Skytrax also named YVR the best airport in North America, based on votes cast by passengers, CEO Vrooman noted.
She added, though, that YVR needs more government funding and approval to upgrade luggage scanners and facial recognition software.
“Those are the kinds of investments that we see at five-star airports.”
Among the spending Vrooman does not envision in the near future is money for an additional runway parallel to the existing east-west main runways.
“By our modelling, we have to be about the size of London Heathrow (Europe’s busiest airport) before we ever really need a third runway,” Vrooman said.
The airport has budgeted $60 million to raise its dikes, and has already spent $200 million to improve dikes and to dredge ditches, Vrooman said. She argued the efforts are working so far: YVR was able to continue operating in November 2021 when the atmospheric river storm flooded much of Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.
“We’re using the best of technology to give us very sensitive water and weather readings, and we’re vigilant,” Vrooman said.
“We feel like we’re in a good place.”
Climate solutions ‘very urgent’
The 2022-2024 strategic plan identified other environmental goals at the airport, including net-zero carbon emissions by 2030, transforming its ground vehicles to electric, and updating its heating and cooling systems.
Vrooman said she’d like governments to spend more on transit to make passengers’ commutes more green. The number of people who take a bus or train to YVR is high compared to other North American airports, but “is still way lower than it is in Europe or some regions in Asia,” she said.
UBC’s Zhang said addressing the climate emergency is “very urgent” for YVR, as scientists predict the sea level will rise by one to two metres by the end of this century.
Reducing CO2 emissions is more challenging for air transportation than for ground or marine industries, Zhang said, because electric planes are not yet viable, especially for longer flights.
He believes YVR could achieve its zero-emissions goal by 2030, but added that will require a lot of money and it’s difficult to predict the airport’s financial stability while Trump is U.S. president.
Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie said it is the responsibility of the airport authority, not the city, to improve dikes and ditches on Sea Island, but he believes YVR has improved its environmental footprint over time.
“They are actively working on it under a 10-year plan. And they are also working on a longer-term plan, but they haven’t disclosed it as of yet,” Brodie said.
The airport is a good neighbour for the economic activity and jobs it brings to his city, he said, adding there are fewer complaints today from residents who live under flight paths after YVR made some changes to reduce noise.
Richmond has also adjusted its community plan so that “noise sensitive” areas under flight paths will not be approved for homes, but rather for non-residential development, Brodie said.
The airport gets noise complaints from its neighbours, YVR’s Smith concedes, but has tried to lower the volume on its operations. It built a large, horseshoe-shaped structure on the south airfield for planes to park, creating a soundproof area for when the jets need to run up their engines at night.
Flight paths have been changed so planes can take off more steeply, meaning they don’t get as close to houses. And depending on wind or airport busyness, aircraft will depart going west over the ocean, rather than east over Richmond, to avoid irritating local residents, Smith said.
“(Noise) is a reality, but we will do everything we can to mitigate it,” she said.
With the expansion of cargo, though, will there be more planes landing, potentially at hours when passenger jets don’t fly but while Richmond residents are trying to sleep?
Not necessarily, argues Vrooman, because about two-thirds of the cargo that comes to YVR is carried in the belly of passenger flights. Only third is by direct air freight carriers, including Amazon, FedEx and Purolator.
Expanding cargo — such as agriculture, seafood, electronics and consumer goods — is helping the airport dig itself out of the financial hole created by the pandemic. Vrooman said YVR has a high credit rating and is making payments on that debt.
“While making sure that we’re not contributing to additional noise or congestion,” Vrooman said, “we are doing things that allow us to expand.”
It’s an expansion that must navigate environmental and financial concerns, while ensuring passengers reach their destinations on time during an era of rising political tensions and travel uncertainty.