Canadians keep their feet on the ground
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Canadians increasingly chose to stay grounded in 2009, with Canadian air carriers reporting 55.0 million passengers, a 4.7% drop from 2008 that reversed a five-year upward trend. The domestic airline sector declined 4.7% to 32.3 million passengers, while the international sector decreased 1.2% to 22.7 million passengers.
Air carriers recorded 123 billion passenger-kilometres flown in 2009, down 5.1% from the previous year. Both the domestic sector and the international sector fell at the same pace (5.1%).
Despite these declines, Canadian air carriers returned to profitability in 2009 with a recorded net income of $225.6 million. This gain follows net losses of $677.1 million in 2008.
Canadian air carriers consumed 5.6 billion litres of fuel in 2009 and spent $3.4 billion acquiring the fuel. In 2009, 99 cents of each operating revenue dollar went to cover operating expenses. Fuel costs accounted for 22.4% of the operating expenses, down from 32.4% in 2008.
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