Night Time Operations

24-Hour Operations

Like all Canadian international airports, YVR is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week to meet the travel and business needs of the region. At YVR, night-time operations between midnight and 6:00 a.m. are typically associated with courier, cargo, and scheduled passenger services, accounting for about 3-4% of our total annual runway movements.

YVR has always been a 24-hour operation – including when the airport was managed by Transport Canada prior to 1992. As Canada’s second busiest airport and a major international hub, YVR connects B.C. to the world and serves the community and economy that supports it. Maintaining a 24-hour operation is critical to enabling seamless passenger travel, cargo movement, tourism, and investment that benefits the region.

Statistics and trends on night operations at YVR can be found in our Annual Noise Report.

Minimizing Aircraft Noise at Night

We understand there are community concerns about aircraft noise during the night-time hours, and YVR has several restrictions published in our Noise Abatement Procedures to minimize disturbance from night operations. These include the following:

• A prior approval requirement for departures of jet aircraft rated over 34,000 kg (maximum take-off weight) between the hours of midnight and 6:00 a.m.
• A preferential runway operation that attempts to keep both arriving and departing traffic over the Strait of Georgia, weather and traffic level permitting.
• Early turn and vectoring procedures for aircraft on certain routes to minimize over-flights of populated areas.
• Use of standardized Noise Abatement Departure Procedures to reduce noise during take-off through the management of aircraft performance.
• Closure of the North Runway (08L/26R) between 10:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., except during emergencies and airfield maintenance.

When receiving requests for jet departures at night, we review the benefits of the operation to the broader community. In general, operations that carry passengers or cargo from YVR are approved, whereas ferry (repositioning) flights and technical stops (refueling) operations are denied.

Do you have any additional questions?

Please contact YVR Noise Management.