Ottawa, Nov 13 (IANS): Canada saw the number of international arrivals to the country increase in October from the same month last year, but remained well below the pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels of October 2019, according to authorities.
American residents took 292,200 trips to Canada in October in US-licensed automobiles through 111 land ports equipped with the automated Integrated Primary Inspection Line (IPIL) application, Xinhua news agency quoted a report released on Friday by Statistics Canada.
The figure was over four and a half times higher than the 64,700 trips taken in October 2020. But it was less than 29.4 per cent of the 994,100 US arrivals by a vehicle in the same month in 2019.
Meanwhile, there were 207,600 Canadian residents who returned from the US in Canadian-licensed automobiles via the 111 IPIL equipped ports. The number was up significantly from the 159,500 recorded in October 2020.
Given that the US land border was closed for non-essential travel until November 8, this represented about 10.3 per cent of 2 million Canadians who drove back across the border in October 2019.
There were 114,200 arrivals from the US and 149,200 arrivals of non-residents from other countries at Canadian airports equipped with Primary Inspection Kiosks (PIKs) in October.
All airport arrivals combined in the month were 18,300 more than in October 2020.
Despite the increase, it is less than half of the 608,000 such arrivals in October 2019.
The number of Canadian residents flying back from abroad in October 2021 via Canadian airports equipped with PIKs was 480,100, up from 58,400 in October 2020.
The number of Canadian residents returning from abroad via the same airports was over eight times greater in October than in October 2020.
The US reopened its land border to fully vaccinated travellers, including Canadian residents, following the opening of ports of entry on November 8.
The Canadian government has now opened the country's borders to all fully vaccinated international travellers.
However, effective October 30, all air travellers departing on flights from Canadian airports are required to be fully vaccinated in order to travel.