Nav Canada says it has a plan in place to handle peak summer travel demand, with flight volumes poised to exceed 2025 levels despite higher airfares caused by the Iran war.

The non-profit body, which runs the country’s civil air navigation, said Tuesday it has about 2,100 air traffic controllers on hand, more than at any point since the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the World Cup and other international events around the corner, Nav Canada has also rehired more than 50 retired controllers and launched a four-year, $368 million training and recruitment program amid an ongoing labour shortage.

In 2024, the organization inked a partnership with flight simulator maker CAE Inc. to churn out hundreds more controllers through 2028.

“We have been preparing for this summer for well over a year. Our team is ready,” said Marie-Pier Berman, chief of operations at Nav Canada.

“We have invested in the tools and processes that make our operation more resilient, and we are working closely with our partners across the aviation industry to deliver the safest and most efficient service possible.”

Nonetheless, the number of safety incidents on Canadian runways reached new highs in recent years even as the tally of extremely close calls levelled off, according to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

Board data shows that so-called runway incursions — when a plane, vehicle or person winds up on or near a runway when they shouldn’t be — hit a record 639 in 2024, the latest full year for which the watchdog has statistics.

However, the number of incidents categorized as high-risk — when there is “significant potential for collision,” according to Nav Canada — has fallen to an average of about one per year since 2018. The figures ranged higher in the preceding decade.

In April, safety board chairman Yoan Marier told The Canadian Press the upward trajectory of runway incidents overall was still “concerning,” and stemmed partly from a shortage of air traffic controllers, growing plane traffic and increasingly complex ground operations at large airports.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 19, 2026.

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press