Canadian air carrier revenues continue to climb: StatsCan reports
Operating revenue for the 24 largest Canadian air carriers totalled $8.3 billion in the first quarter of 2024, up 8.1% compared with the same quarter of 2023.
At $7.2 billion, passenger revenue remained the main revenue source for airlines in the first quarter of 2024, while air cargo generated $522.3 million in revenue.
In the first quarter, Canadian carriers transported 22.0 million passengers on scheduled and charter services.
Operating revenue continues to climb
During the first quarter, operating revenue for the 24 largest Canadian air carriers (Levels I and II) totalled $8.3 billion, 8.1% higher than the first quarter of 2023 and 25.3% higher than the same quarter of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
At $7.2 billion, passenger revenue represented 87.2% of total operating revenue in the first quarter of 2024. Cargo revenue was $522.3 million, representing 6.3% of the total operating revenue, which falls into the 5% to 7% range of revenue contribution observed prior to the pandemic.
On the other side of the ledger, total operating expenses were $8.3 billion in the first quarter of 2024, 5.8% higher than in the first quarter of 2023 and 28.8% higher than the same quarter in 2019.
Other operating expenses, such as depreciation and maintenance, accounted for the largest share (51.5%) of total operating expenses in the first quarter of 2024, followed by turbo fuel (25.1%) and wages, salaries and benefits (23.3%).
Progressively rising traffic flows
The 24 Canadian air carriers transported 22.0 million passengers in the first quarter, 21.5 million on scheduled flights and 436,000 on chartered flights. While this represents an increase of 7.3% from the same quarter of 2023, it was 5.4% lower than the pre-pandemic level in 2019.
In the first quarter of 2024, there were 8.8 million passengers on domestic routes and 13.1 million international passengers.
Among the international passengers, 5.4 million had taken transborder flights (between Canada and the United States) and 7.8 million were carried on other international flights.
Scheduled (non-charter) traffic was 57.5 billion passenger-kilometres in the first quarter, while capacity was 68.0 billion available seat-kilometres, resulting in a load factor of 84.7%. This was slightly above the 82.3% load factor of the same quarter in 2019.
