Air Canada says it made $838 million in profit in its most recent quarter amid soaring travel demand and higher fares, despite thousands of delayed or canceled flights.
The Montreal-based carrier released quarterly figures on Friday morning that showed the company’s financial results were soaring to levels not seen since before the pandemic. Operating revenue in the three-month period to the end of June reached $5.43 billion, up from $3.98 billion in the same period a year ago. Net profit was 838 million in the quarter, a reversal from the loss of $386 million in the same period a year earlier. Earnings per diluted share were $1.85. This is the highest figure since the middle of 2019.
Analysts also noted higher ticket prices behind those profit margins. “Air Canada had a very good quarter, benefiting from a strong demand customers, full planes, high prices banknotes and weak costs of fuel », said Walter Spracklin, analyst at RBC Dominion Securities, in a note to investors.
“We safely transported more than 11 million customers on our global network during the quarter, up approximately 23% year-on-year”, said Michael Rousseau, President and CEO of Air Canada. He also mentioned the too many flight cancellations, especially last June. Of Air Canada’s 25,000 scheduled flights in June, about 1,600, or 6.4%, were canceled, an improvement from last June, when the carrier had a cancellation rate of 9.3%, which is equivalent to more than 2,400 flights. “However, despite more trained resources than last summer and improved tools, our operations in June and July did not reach the expected levels”, he conceded.“We are redoubling our efforts to protect the customer journey from disruption, This includes using any influence we have, in cases such as driver attrition at our main regional partner or supply chain issues world, or working to mitigate the effects of situations beyond our control, such as disruptive storms in our key region. We are confident that our efforts will yield positive results. »
