Air Canada has reported financial results for the second quarter 2021. In the second quarter of 2021, Air Canada increased its ASM capacity by 78 per cent compared to the second quarter of 2020 (a reduction of 86 per cent when compared to the second quarter of 2019).
On June 14, 2021, Air Canada and Air Canada Cargo announced an initial list of planned routes for the Boeing 767-300ER freighters scheduled to enter service later in 2021. Since March 2020, Air Canada has operated more than 10,000 all-cargo flights using its wide-body passenger aircraft including certain temporarily modified Boeing 777 and Airbus A330 aircraft, which have additional available cargo space due to the removal of seats from the passenger cabin.
On June 15, 2021, Air Canada announced its peak summer schedule serving a total of 50 Canadian destinations from coast to coast. The schedule was developed to advance Canada’s economic recovery and to support the country’s tourism and hospitality businesses during the important summer period. It includes three new routes, the re-establishment of select regional routes, and wide-body aircraft featuring Air Canada Signature Class and Premium Economy Class on select transcontinental routes. In the second quarter of 2021, Air Canada also announced its international schedule for Summer 2021 and an expanded service to Hawaii for the Winter 2022 schedule, and, on June 18, 2021, operated its inaugural Montreal-Cairo flight.
On July 19, 2021, Air Canada announced its summer transborder schedule, including 55 routes and 34 destinations in the U.S., with up to 220 daily flights between the U.S. and Canada. The new schedule coincides with the easing of Canadian travel restrictions between the two countries as of August 9, 2021, including the removal of hotel quarantine requirements for all travellers, relaxed testing requirements for Canadians travelling to the US for less than 72 hours, and allowing fully vaccinated citizens and permanent residents of the U.S. to enter Canada for non-essential travel, and other measures.
Air Canada plans to increase its third quarter 2021 ASM capacity from the same quarter in 2020 by about 85 per cent. In the third quarter of 2021, when compared to the same period in 2019, ASM capacity is expected to decrease about 65 per cent. The airline continues to dynamically adjust capacity and take other measures as required to account for public health guidelines, travel restrictions globally and passenger demand.
Matthieu Casey, Senior Director, Cargo Global Sales and Revenue Optimization said, “We’re tremendously proud of the strongest quarterly results Air Canada Cargo has ever seen, which are a testament to our continued efforts to maintain stable and consistent capacity flows for our customers across the globe through cargo-only flying. As announced today, we achieved a record $358 million in Cargo revenue for the second quarter, which represents an increase of $89 million, or 33% compared to the same quarter in 2020.
We’re relieved to see our passenger network starting to rebuild and continue to provide cargo-only flying in markets where capacity is still constrained. With the arrival of our first 767 freighters in Q4, the combination of these, our continued cargo-only flying and passenger flights resuming paints a strong portrait for the rest of the year.
