Air Canada Cargo Q3 revenue down 23% on lower traffic
In the first nine months of 2022, cargo revenue of C$978 million ($714 million) was down 3%.
Air Canada Cargo reported a 23 percent decline in revenue to C$281 million ($205 million) for the third quarter of 2022 primarily due to lower year-over-year traffic in the Pacific market.
Reduced freighter activities due to the temporarily converted passenger aircraft no longer flying cargo-only flights, and, to a lesser extent, to yield normalisation, mainly in the U.S. transborder and Atlantic markets, affected operations, says an official release.
"The decline was partially offset by increased capacity and higher traffic in the Atlantic, U.S. transborder and Other markets."
The Q3 revenue of C$281 million was an increase of C$104 million ($76 million), or 59 percent, when compared to the third quarter of 2019.
In the first nine months of 2022, cargo revenues of C$978 million ($714 million) was down 3 percent compared to the same period in 2021 but an increase of C$447 million ($326 million), or 84 percent, compared to the first nine months of 2019. "The decline versus 2021 was mainly due to lower traffic in the Pacific markets and lower yield in the U.S. transborder and Atlantic markets and was partially offset by higher yields in the Pacific markets and higher traffic most notably in Other and Atlantic markets. These results largely reflect the impact of Air Canada no longer operating cargo-only flights using the temporarily converted passenger aircraft as of the end of the second quarter of 2022."
Air Canada Cargo currently operates four Boeing 767-300 freighters including two brand new production freighters. The Canadian flag carrier will add two more converted 767-300 freighters by the close of 2022.
Group revenue more than doubles in Q3
Air Canada reported operating revenue of C$5.3 billion ($3.9 billion), more than double the Q32021 revenue of C$2.1 billion ($1.5 billion).
"Air Canada's solid third quarter results stem from the ongoing restoration of our extensive network, an improved operational performance, our modern and efficient fleet, as well as leading products and services, and an incredible team of employees," says Michael Rousseau, President and Chief Executive Officer, Air Canada. "We generated C$644 million in operating income with a strong operating margin of 12.1 percent. This was the first quarter since the pandemic began in which we delivered positive operating income."
"Air Canada Cargo is consistently contributing to our results and Aeroplan is continuing to perform extremely well with travel's return. Our transformed loyalty program's gross billings from points sold, purchase volume on co-brand cards, and new members are all at record highs.
"Despite the global disruption of air travel, through teamwork and focused efforts, we safely transported nearly 11.5 million customers to their destinations this quarter. We are further encouraged by continuing strong demand, now further stimulated by the easing of Covid-related restrictions. Advance ticket sales in the quarter were at 95 percent of third quarter 2019 levels. In the third quarter, our adjusted unit cost or adjusted cost per available seat mile (CASM) improved by 38 percent to 11.6 cents compared to the same period last year, and we will continue to carefully control costs. We ended the quarter with just over $10.2 billion in total liquidity."
