Highlights

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1. For the 12-month period, January to December 2008, for the scheduled and charter services, the major Canadian air carriers reported a 5.4% increase in passengers and a 3.5% advance in passenger-kilometres compared with the same period in 2007. WestJet reported that total passenger-kilometres flown grew 17.0% during the period, while the operations of Air Canada edged up 0.1%.
2. Air Canada reported an improvement in its scheduled passenger load factor (a measure of the fullness of their aircraft), while WestJet reported a slight deterioration. For the 12-month period, January to December 2008, Air Canada's passenger load factor reached 82.3% and WestJet's passenger load factor stood at 79.2%.
3. For the 12-month period, January to December 2008, domestic growth led the increases in scheduled passenger operations. The domestic sector grew by 7.2% during the period, while the international sector posted a rise of 2.2%. The major Canadian air carriers reported that scheduled passenger-kilometre operations increased by 4.7% in the domestic sector and 3.2% in the international sector. WestJet reported that domestic and international passenger-kilometres flown climbed 9.4% and 70.6%, respectively compared with the same period in 2007, while the scheduled operations of Air Canada advanced at a much slower pace in the domestic sector (+1.4%) and declined in the international sector (-0.4%).
4. Air Canada carried almost the same proportion of scheduled passengers in the domestic sector (49.7%) as in the international sector (50.3%), while the proportion of domestic sector passenger activity for WestJet outpaced the proportion of international sector passenger activity (85.7% compared to 14.3%). In terms of passenger-kilometres flown, Air Canada recorded 71.5% of its scheduled operations in the international sector and WestJet, 77.0% in the domestic sector (see Table 1).
5. For the 12-month period, January to December 2008, WestJet continued to gain market share, in terms of passenger traffic, in both domestic and international scheduled services. During the period, WestJet transported 50.8% of domestic passengers and 14.5% of international passengers. Comparable figures for the 2007 period were respectively 47.3% and 10.5%. However, Air Canada still dominated the domestic sector in terms of passenger-kilometres with 57.0% of the market (see Table 2). (Note: market share is measured here with respect to these two carriers' operations only.)