Air Canada Must Balance Macro Uncertainty With Cost Discipline and Fleet Efficiency Efforts

Roughly 73% of Air Canada's 2025 passenger revenue came from trips that began or ended outside of Canada, with just over 20% from flights to or from the US. Air Canada capitalizes on so-called sixth-freedom traffic, which connects long-haul international routes to the US via layover in a Canadian airport. While we think Air Canada came into the covid crisis in better financial shape than many of its US-based peers, its international exposure and prolonged travel restrictions in the Canadian market placed it under comparably more financial stress.