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Air Canada reported soaring profits in its latest quarter as consumers continued to spend big on travel, despite higher inflation and interest rates weighing on their wallets. The country’s biggest airline saw net income in its Q3 jump to $1.25b from a half-billion-dollar loss in the same period a year earlier. On a conference call Monday, CE Michael Rousseau told analysts demand remains “very stable” — an adjective executives deployed seven times during the call. Bookings back up the CEO’s confidence. Advance ticket sales in the quarter ended Sept. 30 shot up by 55% from the same period a year earlier to $4.5b. Passenger revenues leaped 22% year over year, Rousseau said. Adjusted earnings also surpassed those from 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the travel industry. The resurgent appetite for travel extends a trend that began in the summer of 2022 and held steady throughout 2023. Despite still-elevated inflation and the Bank of Canada’s key interest rate sitting at 4.5% at the end of January — it’s since crept up to 5% — Canadians took more than 10m trips abroad between January and April. The figure marks a 7% increase from the same four months in 2019, according to an RBC report, which diagnosed “Canadians’ post-pandemic travel fever.” Not all observers were so bullish on demand — including RBC’s own. “We are cautious on consumer spending patterns going into 2024 on the back of lower discretionary income due to higher interest rates, increased competition and higher costs — fuel and labour,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Walter Spracklin said in a note to investors Monday.<br/>

Air Canada says the country’s passenger rights overhaul will hardly hurt its bottom line. On a call with analysts Monday, CFO John Di Bert said the financial impact of the reforms will be “incremental.” He says the full impact of the updated rights charter will become more apparent in 2024, noting there would be some added pressure. In April, the federal government announced sweeping reforms to the Air Passenger Protection Regulations, with the specifics now being hashed out by Canada’s transport regulator. The changes appear to scrap a loophole through which airlines have denied customers compensation for flight delays or cancellations when they were required for safety purposes. The new rules also ratchet up the maximum penalty for airline violations to $250,000 _ a tenfold increase _ and put the regulatory cost of complaints on carriers.<br/>

Air Canada pilots joined by supporting pilots from other airlines picketed at the Montreal International Airport Monday morning, demanding better wages and benefits from their employer. The pilots are putting pressure on Air Canada with what they’re calling an “informational picket” as their bargaining process continues. Pilots also picketed at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport last month. Earlier this year the union representing some 5,000 Air Canada pilots triggered an option to launch negotiations around a new collective agreement. Air Canada pilots have received a 2% pay hike each year since 2014. Bargaining agreements elsewhere in Canada and the United States have led to big pay increases for pilots. In May, some 1,800 pilots at WestJet and budget subsidiary Swoop settled on a tentative deal that secured a 24% wage increase over four years. And between March and September, pilots at Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines secured agreements that included four-year pay hikes ranging from 34% to 40%. “While Air Canada is expected to announce strong results on Monday, operationally, the airline is still falling short,” said Charlene Hudy, chair of the Air Canada master executive council. “With cancelled and delayed flights being a frequent occurrence, no one understands that better than our pilots and our passengers.<br/>

Air Canada has been forced to apologize after a man with spastic cerebral palsy was forced to drag himself off a plane when the flagship carrier failed to provide a wheelchair for him. Rodney Hodgins, 49, a hardware salesman from British Columbia who requires the use of a motorized wheelchair, flew to Las Vegas with his wife, Deanna, to celebrate their anniversary in August. But when the plane landed, the flight attendant told the couple there wasn’t time to get a wheelchair on board before the plane had to prepare for takeoff again, Deanna Hodgins wrote in a recent Facebook post. When the attendant said Hodgins would have to pull himself off the plane alone, the couple at first thought she was joking – but then she repeated the request. “I said, ‘Of course I can’t. I’m in a wheelchair. I can’t walk,’” he told the Canadian Press. Hodgins was forced to use his upper body strength to haul himself past 12 rows of seats, with his wife holding his legs. In her Facebook post, Deanna Hodgins said the event left the couple devastated. “It took us struggling, in front of a dozen people as some looked away and others looked on with shame, to get him off that plane … he hurt his legs and I hurt my back – emotionally a lot more was hurt … my husband’s human rights were trampled on and Air Canada won’t respond to us, and never did reach out like they promised,” she wrote. “Rod is the most beautiful human on the planet and didn’t deserve this at all.” The company acknowledged Hodgins received inadequate support. “We use the services of a third party wheelchair assistance specialist in Las Vegas to provide safe transport on and off aircraft,” the statement read. “Following our investigation into how this serious service lapse occurred, we will be evaluating other mobility assistance service partners in Las Vegas.”<br/>

The Turkish Airlines on Monday commenced direct flights between Sri Lanka and Istanbul after 10 years, said Chairman of the Airport and Aviation Services Sri Lanka Ltd G. A. Chandrasiri. Addressing an event to mark the occasion of the Turkish aircraft arriving in Sri Lanka, Chandrasiri said four flights a week will operate between the two countries. From 2024, Turkish Airlines flights will arrive in Sri Lanka all seven days of the week, he said. He said the number of passengers from Turkey will now increase by 300%. Meanwhile, Minister of Tourism and Lands Harin Fernando, also addressing the event, said Sri Lanka plans to attract 2.5m tourists in 2024. Sri Lanka's tourism industry, one of Sri Lanka's leading foreign exchange earners, is aiming to attract 2m visitors in 2023, compared to the previous target of 1.5m.<br/>

Asiana Airlines, Korea's second-largest air carrier, failed to conclude on Monday whether to sell its cargo business, as Korean Air seeks to win antitrust approval from European Union regulators for the takeover of its smaller rival. The EU antitrust regulators have raised concerns that Korean Air's acquisition of Asiana may restrict competition in the markets for passenger and cargo air transport services between the EU and Korea. The board of the airline held an hourslong meeting earlier in the day to deliberate the plan to sell off the cargo business. A follow-up board meeting is expected to be convened Tuesday. An approval would grant Korean Air, the larger of the two full-service carriers, a closer step in winning a nod from the European Commission (EC), the EU's executive body, for the merger deal. A rejection, on the contrary, could potentially dampen the prospects of the deal, which has been pursued for the past three years. Ahead of the meeting, Jin Kwang-ho, head of Asiana's safety and security division and one of Asiana's two internal board members, offered to resign, citing personal reasons, according to the company. Jin was widely known to have been against the cargo business sale. His sudden departure portended a heated debate even before the meeting. The board's remaining five members ― one internal and four outside ― reportedly debated whether the cargo business sale approval could potentially constitute breach of trust and whether it would serve in the interest of Asiana's shareholders. Korean Air, the larger of Korea's two full-service airlines, also convened its own board meeting Monday to discuss remedial measures to address concerns raised by the EC, the EU's executive body.<br/>

Thai Airways will resume its services in Vietnam from Sunday following an inauguration ceremony held by the carrier and the Huong Giang Air Service Co., Ltd. in Hanoi on October 25. Addressing the ceremony, Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara noted that the airline’s resumption of flights between Bangkok and Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City is important to the tourism industry and economy of each country. Last year, Thailand welcomed more than 500,000 Vietnamese tourists, while over 200,000 Thais visited Vietnam, he said, noting that the numbers are expected to double this year. The Thai Deputy PM described the resumption as a major stride and a symbol of the close ties between Vietnam and Thailand, especially in the context that the two countries are celebrating the 10th anniversary of their strategic partnership (2013-2023).<br/>