Air Canada has generated CA$644 million in operating income with a strong operating margin of 12.1% in the third quarter of 2022. This was the first quarter since the pandemic began in which the company delivered positive operating income. Operating revenues more than doubled to CA$5.3 billion, on a capacity growth of 130% and EBITDA increased to over a billion, with a margin of 19.9%. Air Canada posted a net loss of CA$508 million, compared to a net loss of CA$640 million in the third quarter of 2021, which included a foreign exchange loss of CA$951 million.
Yields also improved, helping offset higher fuel prices. Air Canada Cargo is consistently contributing to Air Canada’s results and Aeroplan is continuing to perform extremely well with travel’s return. The transformed loyalty programmes’ gross billings from points sold, purchase volume on co-brand cards and new members are all at record highs.
Michael Rousseau, President and Chief Executive Officer of Air Canada stated: “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% of third quarter 2019 levels. In the third quarter, our adjusted unit cost or adjusted CASM improved by 38% 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 CA$10.2 billion in total liquidity
