In the second quarter of 2022, Air Canada achieved revenues nearly five times greater than in the same period last year. In 2021, Q2 revenue was just $837 million. This year, that’s up to $3.98 billion. A whopping increase that was matched by a similar decrease in losses.
Compared with a $1.13 billion operating loss in Q2 of 2021, the $253 million operating loss in the second quarter of 2022 seems like a giant leap forward. And Air Canada notes it represents the company’s narrowest quarterly loss since the pandemic began.
The airline also revealed some other good news in its second quarter results, even though the carrier isn’t out of the pandemic woods yet, including:
- Free cash flow of $441 million, an increase of nearly $2.1 billion from the second quarter of 2021; and
- Unrestricted liquidity of over $10.5 billion as of 30JUN 2022.
At the outset of the company’s second quarter results release, Air Canada's president and CEO Michael Rousseau acknowledged the massive delays, lineups and luggage issues that have plagued Canada’s air travel industry this summer, making headlines worldwide and forcing Air Canada to scale back its summer flight schedule.
"The past three months have been very challenging for our company, our employees, and customers from an operational perspective,” Rousseau said.
“We have gone from a near two-year shutdown of air travel to rebuilding our capacity back to close to 80 per cent of 2019 levels in just a few months,” he pointed out.
“The path to recovery from any serious event is rarely straight and easy. I thank our employees for their incredibly hard work, demonstrated professionalism and commitment as we safely transported over 9.1 million customers in the quarter, nearly 8 million more than the second quarter of 2021 or about 70% of total customers carried in the full year 2021."
He added that the global airline industry is facing “unprecedented conditions as it emerges from pandemic-related restrictions,” and recognized that the situation is “particularly challenging in Canada,” but says he is “encouraged by recent improvements.”
Outlook for the Year
Air Canada says it expects its full year capacity to reach 74 per cent of 2019 levels - up 150 per cent from 2021, with adjusted costs for available seat mile (CASM) to be about 15 per cent above 2019 levels.
