For the full year 2012, load factor was a record 82.

7 per cent, versus 81.6 per cent, an increase of 1.1 percentage points.  Air Canada reports traffic results on a system-wide basis, including regional airlines from which Air Canada purchases capacity.

“For both the month of December and full year 2012, Air Canada achieved record load factors of 82.1 and 82.7 per cent, respectively,” said Calin Rovinescu, President and Chief Executive Officer. “Led by increases in traffic in the U.S. transborder market of 6.6 per cent and in the Atlantic market of 5.1 per cent, Air Canada generated greater traffic for the month of December in all markets the airline serves with system wide growth of 3.2 per cent on a capacity increase of 1.8 per cent through higher utilization of our existing fleet.  These strong results, for both the month and full year, underscore the effectiveness of Air Canada’s disciplined capacity management and our award winning product.

  I want to thank our employees for taking care of the more than 33 million customers Air Canada served in 2012 and, above all, transporting them safely to their destination. Their professionalism and efforts in earning our customers’ loyalty have been recognized by many industry awards, including the selection of Air Canada by frequent world travelers as the Best International Airline in North America .

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In 2012, Air Canada was ranked for a third consecutive year “Best International Airline in North America ” in a worldwide survey of more than 18 million airline passengers conducted by independent research firm Skytrax.  According to the 2012 Canadian Business Travel Survey conducted by Ipsos Reid, Air Canada was the preferred airline for more than 79 percent of frequent business travellers in Canada .  In 2012, readers of Global Traveler magazine voted Air Canada “Best Airline in North America ,” the readers of Business Traveler voted Air Canada “Best North American Airline for International Travel” and “Best In-Flight Services in North America ,” and the readers of Premier Traveler voted Air Canada “Best North American Airline for Business Class Service,” “Best North American Airline for International Travel” and “Best Flight Attendants in North America .”

Air Canada, www.aircanada.com