Quarterly civil aviation statistics, fourth quarter 2016
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Released: 2017-07-26
Total operating revenue for the 24 largest Canadian air carriers was $5.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016, up 4.0% from the same quarter in 2015. Total operating expenses grew 8.1% to $5.0 billion.
As a result, net operating income fell 61.2% to $112.2 million. This amount, combined with a net non-operating loss of $259.9 million, produced a net loss of $147.8 million, which was larger than the net loss of $76.9 million recorded in the same quarter in 2015.
These airlines recorded a negative profit margin (net income divided by operating revenue) (-2.9%). In other words, every dollar of service sold in the fourth quarter resulted in a loss of 2.9 cents for the carriers.
These same 24 Canadian air carriers carried 19.1 million passengers during the fourth quarter, up 10.2% from the same quarter a year earlier. The number of passengers flying on scheduled flights rose 10.0% to 18.7 million, while the passenger counts on chartered flights increased 24.0% to 396,000.
Traffic and capacity for scheduled services both recorded notable increases during the fourth quarter. Year over year, traffic was up 11.9% to 42.8 billion passenger-kilometres, while capacity rose 12.8% to 54.2 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 fourth quarter (79.0%) for their scheduled services than in the same quarter a year earlier (79.6%).
The average number of employees was up 4.9% to 53,809, while total wages and salaries paid increased 3.9% to $971.5 million.
Note to readers
This release covers Canadian Level I and II air carriers.
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.
Data for the fourth quarter of 2015 have been revised.
Due to rounding, components may not add to total.
Products
Civil aviation data will appear later in the service bulletin Aviation (51-004-X).
Contact information
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