CALGARY — The profits continue to pour in for WestJet, which recently announced its 44th consecutive profitable quarter.

According to the airline’s first quarter results, it netted earnings of $87.6 million, or $0.71 per diluted share. This compares with the all-time high quarterly net earnings of $140.7 million, or $1.09 per diluted share reported in the first quarter of 2015.

WestJet also achieved an on-time performance rate of 83.0% in the first quarter, a significant year-over-year improvement of 5.0 percentage points.

And based on the trailing 12 months, the airline achieved a return on invested capital of 12.8%, compared with the 15.3% reported in the previous quarter.

“Although we continue to feel the impact of economic weakness in Alberta, the fundamentals of our business remain strong as demonstrated by our recent assignment of an investment grade credit rating by Moody’s, and we are seeing positive trends as a result of adjustments we have made to our schedules and the strategic initiatives we are undertaking,” said WestJet President and CEO Gregg Saretsky. “My thanks go out to our more than 11,000 WestJetters for continuing to provide our award-winning brand of friendly, caring service as we celebrate our 20th year of operations.”

For more go to westjet.com.