Immigration and inbound air travel demand in Canada

This paper investigates the impact of immigration on inbound air transport demand in Canada. Air travelers to Canada from 68 countries were regressed against the number of Canadian residents born overseas from 1990 to 2015 with 5-year intervals. The regressions were controlled by population, GDP per capita of country of origin, geographical distance between the major airports and visa requirements. The panel data fixed and random effects models both support the hypothesis that immigration is a major determinant of inbound arrivals in Canada. This is especially true for new immigrants and immigrants from China.