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First-half 2013 figures from Statistics Canada suggested that the major domestic carriers are continuing to climb out of the economic turbulence of the last recession.
Air Canada and WestJet, had transported 21,087 passengers by the end of June, a 2.5 per cent improvement from 20,565 in the first half of 2012. Although the latest percentage growth was the lowest since the 2009 economic meltdown, the latest six-month tally was a record. The majors’ passenger counts bottomed out at 17,637 in 2009 before the latest recovery began.
The latest gain also is reflected in passenger-kilometres (pkm), with the first-half 2013 totaling 55,945,395 pkm, compared with 54,540,899 in the same period last year and 52,254,358 in the first six months of 2011. Again, it had bottomed out in 2009 at 44,725,819 pkm.
Despite the growing proportion of more efficient airframes and engines – and probably influenced by the types of routes serviced – fuel consumption continued to rise, albeit more slowly. First-half 2013 consumption of 2,300,516 litres was approximately 0.6 per cent higher than the year-earlier 2,287,316 l. That first-half 2012 consumption was 2.8 per cent higher than in the same period of 2011 and followed increases of 7.2 per cent and 8.1 per cent, respectively, in the two previous first halves. Consumption bottomed out in the first half of 2009 at 1,920,847 l.
The two carriers also hauled a total of 120,533 kilograms of freight in the latest six months, down 3.8 from the post-recession peak of 125,296 kg in the first half of 2012.
