Quarterly civil aviation statistics, second quarter 2025
Released: 2026-01-02
Highlights
Operating revenue for the 24 largest Canadian air carriers totalled $8.9 billion in the second quarter of 2025, up 3.9% compared with the same April-to-June period in 2024.
At $7.7 billion, passenger revenue was the main source of revenue for airlines in the second quarter of 2025, while air cargo generated $599.5 million in revenue.
In the second quarter, the 24 largest Canadian carriers transported 23.1 million passengers on scheduled and charter services, up 1.7% from the same quarter the previous year.
Operating revenue ascending
During the second quarter, operating revenue for the 24 largest Canadian air carriers (Levels I and II) totalled $8.9 billion, 3.9% higher than the second quarter of 2024.
At $7.7 billion, passenger revenue represented 86.4% of total operating revenue in the second quarter of 2025, while cargo revenue (6.7% of total operating revenue) stood at $599.5 million.
Chart 1
Quarterly goods revenue, Canadian air carriers
On the other side of the ledger, total operating expenses were $8.5 billion in the second quarter, 4.8% higher than in the same quarter of 2024.
Chart 2
Operating revenue and expenses, Canadian air carriers
Other operating expenses, such as depreciation and maintenance, accounted for the largest share (51.7%) of the total during the second quarter of 2025, followed by wages, salaries and benefits (25.9%) and turbo fuel (22.4%). Canadian Level I and II air carriers spent $2.0 billion to purchase turbo fuel and paid $2.3 billion in wages, salaries and benefits to their 71,191 employees. The average number of employees was up 1.6% in the second quarter compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Operating revenue per employee was $125,625 in the second quarter, up 2.3% from the same quarter in 2024. Furthermore, the level of labour productivity, as measured by total tonne-kilometres flown per employee, increased 1.9% to 98.1 tonne-kilometres from the same quarter of 2024.
Overall passengers up while transborder wanes
In the second quarter of 2025, the number of domestic passengers rose 3.4% year over year to 11.4 million, helping to bolster tourism spending in Canada. Over the same period, there were 6.9 million passengers on other international flights (+9.7%), while 4.9 million passengers (-11.0%) had taken transborder flights (between Canada and the United States).
These diverging trends reflect second quarter findings from the Bank of Canada's Canadian Survey of Consumer Expectations, which reported that 34.8% of Canadians planned on spending more while vacationing in Canada and 55.1% planned on spending less while vacationing in the United States. The most recent data on the volume of monthly screened passenger traffic at Canadian airports indicate this divergence has continued into the third and fourth quarters.
Chart 3
Passengers carried, by sector, quarterly data, Canadian air carriers
Scheduled (non-charter) traffic increased 3.5% to 61.8 billion passenger-kilometres in the second quarter of 2025, while capacity increased 4.7% to 73.9 billion available seat-kilometres. The increase in capacity coupled with the smaller increase in demand resulted in carriers recording a lower passenger load factor (the ratio of passenger-kilometres to available seat-kilometres) for scheduled services in the second quarter (83.6%) compared with the same quarter a year earlier (84.5%).
Chart 4
Passenger load factor, Canadian air carriers
Focus on Canada and the United States
Canadian Level I and II airlines flew 4.9 million passengers on scheduled and charter transborder flights in the second quarter of 2025, down from 5.5 million in the same quarter of 2024. This 11.0% decline follows a 2.4% year-over-year decrease in transborder passenger counts during the first quarter.
The passenger load factor on scheduled transborder flights declined from 83.1% in the second quarter of 2024 to 78.2% in the second quarter of 2025.
For more data and insights on areas touched by the socio-economic relationship between Canada and the United States, see the Focus on Canada and the United States webpage.
Note to readers
This release covers Canadian Level I and II air carriers. The number of air carriers remained 24 in 2024.
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 400 000 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 100,000, but fewer than 2 million, revenue passengers, or (b) at least 50 000 tonnes, but fewer than 400 000 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.
Survey data are revised on a quarterly basis to reflect new information.
Because of rounding, components may not add up to the total.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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