Based on data provided by RadarBox.com, Air Canada still hasn’t reached 2019 capacity levels in terms of movement statistics.
There was a slight return to such levels at the start of the year, but since then, the airline still has a lot to do to catch up to such levels.
Without further ado, let’s get into the numbers…
Air Canada’s Numbers…
For March 19-26, the airline achieved 877 movements, based on a seven-day rolling average provided by the flight tracking company.
This represents an increase of 24.40% compared to the same period last year, where 705 movements were handled.
Below is Air Canada’s performance for 2023 so far:
| Date | 2019 Numbers | 2022 Numbers | 2023 Numbers | Percentage Difference (2023 vs. 2022) |
| January 1-8 | 490 movements | 710 movements | 836 movements | +17.75% |
| January 8-15 | 887 movements | 636 movements | 926 movements | +45.60% |
| January 15-22 | 1093 movements | 572 movements | 930 movements | +62.59% |
| January 22-29 | 1034 movements | 572 movements | 889 movements | +55.42% |
| January 29-February 5 | 1023 movements | 551 movements | 911 movements | +65.34% |
| February 5-12 | 1028 movements | 578 movements | 933 movements | +61.42% |
| February 12-19 | 1113 movements | 602 movements | 952 movements | +58.14% |
| February 19-26 | 1144 movements | 649 movements | 927 movements | +42.84% |
| February 26-March 5 | 1131 movements | 704 movements | 899 movements | +27.70% |
| March 5-12 | 1125 movements | 714 movements | 980 movements | +37.25% |
| March 12-19 | 1097 movements | 716 movements | 873 movements | +21.93% |
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What we can see from the data is that Air Canada is offering significant growth compared to the same period in 2022.
The carrier has been close in terms of achieving pre-pandemic levels, but still more work is yet to be done in order to exceed those numbers.
The Airline Has Been Making Strides…
Air Canada has been making strides in the last year, with its 4Q22 performance a significant indicator of that.
The airline doubled its Q4 passenger revenue results in 2022 compared to 2021 and exceeded its pre-pandemic Q4 2019 results by 2%.
In a statement issued on 17 February, Air Canada announced record Q4 passenger revenues of over 4 billion Canadian Dollars (CAD).
In addition, record Q4 operating revenues of over 4.6 billion CAD were disclosed, which was 71% higher than Q4 2021 and 6% higher than Q4 2019.
For its full-year results, Air Canada announced that passenger revenues of 14.238 billion CAD had more than tripled its 2021 results and recovered its performance to approximately 83% of 2019 passenger revenues.
Operating revenues in 2022 had recovered to 250% of 2021 results, with a result of 16.556 billion CAD and at approximately 87% of the figures seen in 2019.
The airline made a loss of 493 million CAD in Q4 2021 due to the pandemic restrictions. For full-year 2022 results, the carrier made a 1.7 billion CAD loss, compared to a 3.6 billion CAD loss in 2021.
The positive performance in Q4 2022 has clearly assisted in improving the carrier’s recovery, reducing losses and debts incurred due to and since the pandemic.
CEO and President Michael Rousseau said that their performance was attributable to “the deep resilience we have built into our company for long-term stability.”
Overall…
It remains clear that Air Canada is making improvements, but it is unclear when it will achieve 2019 levels.
Ahead of the Summer 2023 season, this is an ample opportunity to just do that, especially with the resumption of some services across its network.
But for now, all eyes are on Air Canada to see how the rest of the year will go for the carrier.
