Monthly civil aviation statistics, February 2021 Released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time in The Daily, Thursday, April 29, 2021
Highlights
In February, the situation remained bleak for the Canadian airline industry amid another COVID-19 resurgence. Major Canadian airlines carried 482,000 passengers on scheduled and charter services, down 93.1% from February 2020 and down 39.5% from January 2021.
Traffic and capacity fell 94.0% and 87.9% respectively, the largest year-over-year drops since June 2020.
Compared with February 2020, operating revenues were down 85.5% to $267.9 million in February.
Travel restrictions tighten
February was marked by the suspension of flights to Mexico and the Caribbean as well as the introduction of hotel quarantines for passengers arriving from abroad. As a result, some carriers completely suspended operations, while others had another round of route cuts with more job losses looming. Following these most recent challenges, Canada's largest carrier reached a deal on an aid package with the federal government on April 12, 2021.
Air travel takes another hit
Canadian Level I air carriers flew 482,000 passengers on scheduled and charter services in February, down 93.1% from the same month in 2020. This was the lowest number of passengers and the largest year-over-year decrease since June 2020. February marked the 12th consecutive year-over-year monthly decline, a period with the sharpest drop on record.
Compared with January, the number of passengers declined 39.5%. Over the previous five years, the average monthly decline in February was 2.9%. Although passenger volumes dropped significantly on both domestic and international routes in February, the decrease on international routes was much larger. The Daily, Thursday, April 29, 2021
Chart 1 Indexes of passengers carried and air carrier movements, domestic and international, January 2020 to February 2021
index (January 2020 = 100)
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0 Jan. Feb. 2020 2021
Passengers – Scheduled domestic flights
Passengers – Scheduled international flights
Air carrier movements (levels I to III and foreign) – Domestic
Air carrier movements (levels I to III and foreign) – International
Source(s): Monthly Civil Aviation Survey (5026); Aircraft Movement Statistics: Major airports (2715).
Traffic fell 94.0% year over year to 1.0 billion passenger-kilometres in February, while capacity contracted 87.9% to 2.5 billion available seat-kilometres, the largest declines since June 2020.
As a result, the passenger load factor (the ratio of passenger-kilometres to available seat-kilometres) was 41.0% in February 2021, down from 82.7% in February 2020 and 44.1% in January 2021.
Other measures decline
In February, each passenger travelled an average of 2,122 kilometres, down 13.8% from February 2020.
As the number of flying hours dropped 88.5% to 21,000 in February, the volume of turbo fuel consumed declined 82.5% to 110.5 million litres.
Operating revenue earned by Level I carriers totalled $267.9 million in February, down 85.5% from $1.8 billion the same month a year earlier.
2 Component of Statistics Canada catalogue no. 11-001-X The Daily, Thursday, April 29, 2021
Chart 2 Passengers carried, Canadian air carriers, Level I
thousands
9,000
8,000
7,000
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0 Feb. Feb. 2018 2019 2020 2021
Source(s): Table 23-10-0079-01.
Component of Statistics Canada catalogue no. 11-001-X 3 The Daily, Thursday, April 29, 2021
Chart 3 Passenger load factor, Canadian air carriers, Level I
%
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0 Feb. Feb. 2018 2019 2020 2021
Source(s): Table 23-10-0079-01.
4 Component of Statistics Canada catalogue no. 11-001-X The Daily, Thursday, April 29, 2021
Chart 4 Turbo fuel consumed, Canadian air carriers, Level I
millions of litres
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0 Feb. Feb. 2018 2019 2020 2021
Source(s): Table 23-10-0079-01.
Note to readers
The Monthly Civil Aviation Survey covers all Canadian Level I air carriers: Air Canada (including Air Canada Rouge), Air Transat, Jazz, Porter, Sky Regional, Sunwing, and WestJet (including Swoop, WestJet Encore and WestJet Link).
The average passenger trip length is calculated by dividing the number of passenger-kilometres by the number of passengers. Trips across Canada and the world are included in this calculation.
The data in this monthly release are not seasonally adjusted.
Available tables: table 23-10-0079-01.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5026.
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; [email protected]) or Media Relations (613-951-4636; [email protected]).
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