FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS: AC milestone good news for industry

Good Friday was a good news day for Air Canada, which reported that it carried more than 100,000 customers in a single day for the first time since early in the global health crisis as passenger loads continue to rebound with customers returning to travel.

The airline tallied 100,701 customers across its network on April 15, marking a 100k-plus total last registered on March 13, 2020.

At the height (depth?) of the pandemic, passenger loads fell as low as 2,175 on April 23, 2020, as global air traffic ground to a virtual halt.

Despite being “very pleased” with its latest milestone, Air Canada observes that it has not yet reached pre-pandemic levels, which saw the airline carry an average of nearly 150,000 people daily. The single-day, passenger-load record was 187,000 customers on Aug. 16, 2019.

“Clearly there is a pent-up demand for travel that is matched only by our enthusiasm to welcome back our customers,” enthused Air Canada VP Kevin O’Connor.

“It is also significant that we passed this milestone smoothly indicating Air Canada has recovered operationally from COVID-19’s effects and is prepared to safely and conveniently transport customers during the busy summer ahead,” he added.