Canadians took to the skies on vacation last month as both Air Canada and WestJet Airlines Ltd. reported records for the percentage of seats filled on their flights.
Calgary-based WestJet reported an all-time record load factor of 88.9 per cent for August, up from 83.3 per cent a year ago.
The increase came as revenue passenger miles, or traffic, increased 9.2 per cent year over year, and capacity, measured in available seat miles, grew 2.3 per cent.
WestJet president and CEO Gregg Saretsky was pleased by the record load factor set while the airline flew nearly 172,000 more passengers in August compared with a year ago.
Air Canada reported an August load factor of 87.9 per cent, up from 87.8 per cent in August 2011. Traffic increased 0.7 per cent as capacity increased 0.6 per cent.
The improvement at Air Canada came as the load factor on the carrier's domestic flights improved to 87.4 per cent from 86.2 per cent a year ago. U.S. flights saw an improvement to 82.6 per cent from 82.1 per cent.
