Quarterly civil aviation statistics, third quarter 2016
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Released: 2017-04-26
Total operating revenue for the 24 largest Canadian air carriers was $6.5 billion in the third quarter, up 6.5% from the same quarter in 2015. Total operating expenses grew 7.1% to $5.3 billion.
As a result, net operating income rose 3.8% to $1.2 billion. This amount, combined with a net non-operating loss of $204.6 million, produced a net income of $997.0 million.
These airlines recorded a profit margin of 15.4% (net income divided by operating revenue). In other words, every dollar of service sold in the third quarter earned 15.4 cents of profit for the carriers.
These same 24 Canadian air carriers carried 22.3 million passengers during the third quarter, up 10.6% from the same quarter a year earlier. The number of passengers flying on scheduled flights rose 10.8% to 22.0 million, while the passenger counts on chartered flights decreased 3.6% to 348,000.
Traffic and capacity for scheduled services both recorded notable increases during the third quarter. Year over year, traffic was up 15.1% to 57.7 billion passenger-kilometres, while capacity rose 16.1% to 68.3 billion available seat-kilometres.
As the increase in capacity was greater than the gain in demand, carriers recorded a lower passenger load factor in the third quarter (84.5%) for their scheduled services than in the same quarter a year earlier (85.2%).
The average number of employees was up 5.7% to 52,378, while total wages and salaries paid increased 4.3% to $909.5 million.
Note to readers
This release covers Canadian Level I and II air carriers. The number of air carriers declined from 25 in 2015 to 24 in 2016, as a major charter carrier, CanJet Airlines, suspended its services on September 1, 2015.
Level I air carriers include every Canadian air carrier that, in the calendar year before the year in which information is provided, transported at least 2 million revenue passengers or at least 400 thousand tonnes of cargo.
Level II air carriers include every Canadian air carrier that, in the calendar year before the year in which information is provided, transported (a) at least 100 thousand but fewer than 2 million revenue passengers; or (b) at least 50 thousand but less than 400 thousand tonnes of cargo.
Net non-operating income and loss are from commercial ventures that are not part of the air transportation services; from other revenues and expenses attributable to financing or other activities that are not an integral part of air transportation; and from special recurrent items of a non-periodic nature. Provision for income taxes is also included. Non-operating income can be, for example, capital gains from the sale of aircraft, interest income and foreign exchange adjustment, while non-operating expenses can include capital losses and interest on bank loans and other debt.
Data in this release are not seasonally adjusted.
Products
Civil aviation data will appear later in the service bulletin Aviation (51-004-X).
Contact information
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