MONTREAL — Favourable weather conditions and lessons learned from last year gave Canada’s airlines – and their passengers – a much calmer experience this holiday season compared to the same period in 2022.

Air Canada is reporting a strong operational performance for the year-end holiday travel period, during which nearly 2.6 million customers were transported safely.

Craig Landry, Executive VP and COO at Air Canada, said the airline achieved some of its best operational results in a decade, including completing 98% of scheduled flights, with an on-time performance (OTP) of 70%.

“We thank our customers for entrusting their travel to Air Canada and I am proud that we delivered on our promise to transport them safely and conveniently. Over the holidays we carried about 2.6 million customers on more than 20,000 flights, with an on-time performance of 70%. Our success was the result of extensive advance preparations and the hard work of our people, helped by moderate winter weather. With a clear focus on our customers and on improving the stability and resilience of our operation, we have implemented a range of initiatives to ensure we continue to improve our operational performance into 2024 and beyond,” said Landry.

The 2.6 million customers who flew on Air Canada over the 2023-24 holiday period represented about 10% more customers than in the same period in 2022. As Air Canada notes, this is equivalent to moving nearly the entire combined population of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, or everyone in Canada’s Atlantic provinces.

Air Canada also notes that its 70% OTP was a “dramatic increase” from 40% in 2022, when severe winter weather disrupted travel, and well above the last pre-pandemic holiday period in 2019, when OTP was 54%.

The average delay, when one occurred, was 37 minutes, which is a 43% reduction from 2022 and 10% better than the last pre-pandemic holiday period in 2019. There were 20,075 flights operated, with a completion rate of 98%. This resulted in a 80% reduction in cancelled flights as compared to 2022, and an 71% reduction as compared to the last pre-pandemic holiday period in 2019.

The volume of delayed or mishandled bags dropped by 58% as compared to the prior year, translating into a baggage handling success rate of 98.6%. The new tracking feature on the Air Canada mobile app lets passengers monitor the progress of their bag at key points in the journey.

Air Canada is also sharing key points as it works to improve operational efficiency …

• Stable staffing levels that exceed those from 2019, with continually increased experience levels reinforced through additional training programs
• Improvements in schedule design that allow for additional flexibility in ground time and connecting time for customers
• Collaboration in planning and execution with all key partners in the travel ecosystem, including airport authorities; agencies responsible for airport security, customs and border processing and air traffic control; as well as third party ground handlers, caterers and fuelers
• A systematic focus on customer experience through a new internal program across the company called ECX, or Elevating the Customer Experience, that breaks down all key passenger touch points and generates improvements through investments in technology, self service, and business process redesign