Air Canada filled its planes at record levels this September

Air Canada showed improvements in all of September’s key performance measures compared with September 2011. It reported a record load factor — the percentage of filled seats on its fleet during a particular time — of 84.9 percent, a 2.1 percent increase over September 2011.

Air Canada is the country’s largest airline and serves 1,356 destinations worldwide. Photo by Pauls Bestshot.

Metrics used to measure seat supply as well as the miles flown that the Montreal-based company earns revenue for also increased year over year.

“Air Canada generated greater traffic in all markets the airline serves, with system wide growth of 3.1 per cent…through higher utilization of our existing fleet, said Calin Rovinescu, President and CEO of Air Canada, in a statement. “These strong results underscore the effectiveness of our disciplined capacity management and award-winning product.”

Air Canada reported its traffic improved nearly 3.1 percent and capacity grew 0.5 percent during the third quarter.

In comparison, Calgary-based rival WestJet also reported a record September load factor of 79.1 percent, a 4.4 percent year over year increase.

Air Canada has had the highest cost to fly one seat a mile among North American airlines for the past three years and is moving towards the launch a low-cost airline next summer.