Air Canada profit rises 61% to record $300M

Air Canada says it earned a record second-quarter profit of $300 million, up from $186 million a year ago.

The airline says the profit amounted to $1.08 per diluted share for the quarter ended June 30 compared with a profit of 66 cents per diluted share in the second quarter of 2016.

On an adjusted basis, Air Canada says it earned $215 million or 78 cents per diluted share for the quarter, up from $203 million or 72 cents per diluted share a year ago.

Revenue totalled $3.91 billion for the three-month period, up from nearly $3.46 billion a year ago, as it increased capacity and saw traffic grow by 13.6 per cent.

Air Canada said its cost per available seat mile increased 0.5 per cent from the second quarter of last year, however it fell on an adjusted basis by 3.5 per cent compared with last year.

That was better than the decrease of 1.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent that had been forecast earlier this year.