Air Canada has reported $154 million of EBITDA in the second quarter, a significant increase from a negative quarterly EBITDA of $656 million a year ago, and operating revenues neared $4 billion in the quarter, an improvement of about $3.1 billion from the second quarter of 2021. Air Canada posted an operating loss of $253 million, an improvement when compared to an operating loss of $1.133 billion in the second quarter of 2021.
Michael Rousseau, President and Chief Executive Officer of Air Canada, said: “Compared to pre-pandemic levels, 2022 second quarter advance ticket sales reached 94 per cent of those in the same quarter of 2019. In the second quarter, our operating capacity, measured by available seat miles, was 73 per cent of the same quarter in 2019, and despite the lower capacity, passenger revenues were 80 per cent of those generated in the second quarter of 2019, driven by higher yields.
"We expected travel would rebound significantly once restrictions were lifted and prepared accordingly. We entered the peak summer travel period at close to 90 per cent of our pre-pandemic staffing levels, while prudently planning to operate approximately 80 per cent of our pre-pandemic schedule over that period. In the second quarter of 2022, we delivered a load factor of 80.5%, representing a significant improvement from the second quarter of 2021 levels but still declined about four percentage points from the second quarter of 2019. To further support the industry's recovery efforts and mitigate the short-term impact on customers and employees, we recently took additional steps to flatten peaks and smooth the flow of traffic, by proactively reducing our schedule over July and August."
Cash from operations of $1.077 billion compared to cash used in operations of $1.377 billion in the second quarter of 2021. This improvement of $2.454 billion was driven by better operating results and strong advance ticket sales in the second quarter of 2022.
In late June 2022, in response to the challenges faced by the air transportation system, Air Canada decided to cancel about 8% of its scheduled flights in July and August 2022. This reduction represents about 154 fewer flights per day, on average, primarily on domestic and U.S. transborder routes to and from Toronto and Montreal (at peak times), or a total of about 378 million ASMs.
In July 2022, Air Canada finalized an agreement for the purchase of two new Boeing 777 freighter aircraft with deliveries expected in 2024.
For the third quarter of 2022, Air Canada plans to increase its ASM capacity by about 131 per cent from the same quarter in 2021 (or approximately 79 per cent of third quarter 2019 ASM capacity). Air Canada plans to increase its full year 2022 ASM capacity by about 150 per cent from 2021 ASM levels (or about 74 per cent of 2019 ASM levels).
For 2022, Air Canada expects Adjusted CASM to be about 15 to 17 per cent above 2019 levels, and maintains its expectation of an annual EBITDA margin of about 8 to 11 per cent.