DATA SPOTLIGHT: Canada

4 August, 2020

This year The Blue Swan Daily will feature some of the leading airlines, airports and country markets for air travel. Here, using the extensive profile insights available to CAPA - Centre for Aviation members, we deliver a data snapshot on Canada, where the boss of the country's largest airline is calling for government officials to take reasonable steps to safely reopen the country and restore economic activity.

Air Canada reduced capacity by -92% year-on-year in 2Q2020 and its president and CEO Calin Rovinescu says these declines in revenue of nearly 90% and in passengers of over 96%, should "reinforce the tremendous urgency for governments in Canada to take reasonable steps to safely reopen our country and restore economic activity".

He adds that other jurisdictions globally are showing "it is possible to safely and responsibly manage the complementary priorities of public health, economic recovery and job preservation and creation".

The carrier expects capacity to fall by approximately -80% in 3Q2020, compared to previous estimations of 75% with the movement attributed directly to the continued extension of blanket travel restrictions in Canada.

The "devastating and unprecedented effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and government-imposed travel and border restrictions and quarantine requirements" is clear to see in Air Canada's financial performance acknowledges Mr Rovinescu. The airline recently announced a net loss of CAD1.752 billion (USD1.31 billion) in 2Q2020, compared to a net income of CAD343 million (USD255.81 million) in 2Q2019.

The impact on airline operations is further evident with the news this week that Air Transat plans to suspend nearly all services from Western Canada through the winter 2020/2021 schedule "Since the current situation does not allow us to foresee resuming routes from western Canada in the near future," it says.

The airline plans to suspend all services from Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria in winter 2020, with the exception of service from Vancouver to Toronto and Montreal and some connecting services via Toronto to Europe from 01-Nov-2020 to 30-Apr-2021.

AIRPORTS IN THE COUNTRY

SCHEDULE MOVEMENT SUMMARY (w/c 03-Aug-2020)

ANNUAL CAPACITY (2012 - 2021*)NOTE:*the values for this year are at least partly predictive up to six months and may be subject to change.

WEEKLY DOMESTIC CAPACITY (2017 - 2020*)NOTE:*the values for this year are at least partly predictive up to six months and may be subject to change.

WEEKLY INTERNATIONAL CAPACITY (2017-2020*)NOTE:*the values for this year are at least partly predictive up to six months and may be subject to change.