Air Canada has reported a first-quarter net loss of C$19 million ($19.7 million). However this is less than the C$112 million net deficit it reported in the year-ago period due to the fact the airline cut domestic capacity and the result was also helped by foreign exchange gains of C$104 million and declining unit costs. Despite these gains, the carrier was pushed into the red again due to high fuel costs.
President and CEO Calin Rovinescu said: “In the quarter, we incurred over C$120 million in additional fuel expense from the same quarter last year. Based on expected jet fuel prices and system capacity, we estimate that these higher fuel prices will add approximately C$800 million to our operating costs in 2011.”
First quarter revenue rose 9% to C$2.75 billion compared to the same period last year, while expenses rose 6% to C$2.82 billion, which includes a 20% rise in fuel expenses. Operating loss was C$66 million, which is much better than the operating deficit of C$136 million posted in the same quarter in 2010.
First-quarter traffic increased 5.7% year-over-year to 12.36 billion RPMs on a 7.7% lift in capacity to 15.86 billion ASMs, producing a load factor of 77.9%, down 1.5 points. Passenger yield heightened 4.2% to C$0.186 as RASM rose 1.5% to C$0.174 and CASM decreased 1.4% to C$0.178. CASM ex-fuel lowered 5.3% to C$0.131.