Air Canada reports record quarterly results

Air Canada has released its quarterly results, revealing a record third quarter net income of $1.79bn, over double the $768mn recorded in the same quarter last year.

The majority of this is thanks to an income tax recovery of $793mn, whilst operating revenues have also risen with an 8.8% increase in traffic, resulting in a 9.1% increase in passenger revenue.

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“Reflecting Air Canada's on-going growth, in the quarter we increased passenger revenue by 9.1 per cent to a record $4.478 billion, including strong gains in the business cabin,” said Calin Rovinescu, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Traffic increased 8.8 per cent while yield improved 0.4 per cent.”

These record results have come in the wake of Air Canada expanding its global operations in order facilitate growth. The company announced a number of new non-stop international routes just last month, including Bucharest, Porto and Zagreb.

“These record results underscore the success of the multi-year transformation of our business model,” Rovinescu continued.

As a result of this positive position, Air Canada is expecting to achieve a positive free cashflow of at least $600mn through 2017, money that the company may use to purchase more aircraft in order to satisfy its increasing demand.

“Obviously there is some pretty great opportunities there to expand that and exercise more, but obviously it won't affect 2018 in any fashion," said Rovinescu, speaking to CBC.

The airliner currently has the option to purchase both 48 more planes from Boeing and 30 more planes from Bombardier in its existing contracts, something that it may look to exercise.