AI Analysis: Itinerant movements, by type of operation, airports with NAV CANADA services and other selected airports, monthly

Executive Summary

Statistics Canada's Table 23100298 tracks monthly itinerant aircraft movements across 127 Canadian airports from January 2022 to December 2025, revealing a heavily skewed distribution where a small number of major hubs dominate national traffic. Large air carriers (Level I–III and foreign) overwhelmingly lead all operation types with over 26.8 million total movements, while strong seasonal patterns drive a roughly 2x swing between winter lows and summer peaks. No statistically anomalous months were detected at the national level, though significant volatility exists at individual smaller airports such as Fort Nelson, BC.

Key Findings

• Large air carriers (Level I–III and foreign) dominate Canadian air traffic with over 26.8 million total movements across the period, averaging 4,503 movements per month — far exceeding all other operation types.
• The data is heavily right-skewed: the median of just 88 movements per record versus a mean of 1,417 confirms that most airports handle low volumes while a handful of major hubs drive national totals.
• Seasonal patterns are pronounced, with January 2022 recording the lowest monthly total (200,691 movements) and July 2025 the highest (429,093 movements), representing approximately a 2x range between seasonal extremes.
• Government military movements are the least frequent operation type, totaling only ~537,000 over four years and averaging just 133 movements per month.
• No outlier months were detected at the national level between 2022 and 2025, as all monthly totals fell within the IQR-based statistical bounds of 105,905 to 535,513.
• Fort Nelson, British Columbia is the most volatile airport in the dataset with a coefficient of variation of 2.23, indicating its monthly traffic fluctuates dramatically relative to its average.
• 50% of all records fall within a narrow IQR of just 365 movements (Q1=18, Q3=383), underscoring the vast disparity between smaller regional airports and major international hubs in the dataset.