Travel News Today

Air Canada and rival discount carrier WestJet Airlines both flew fuller planes in November than a year earlier, the country's two dominant airlines said on Tuesday.

Air Canada said its load factor last month was 77.2 percent, up from 76.4 percent in November 2005. WestJet's load factor for November hit 73.4 percent, a record for the month and up from 71.9 percent in the same month last year.

Air Canada's overall capacity increased by 3 percent. Year to date, it filled 81.2 percent of its seats, compared with 80.3 percent for the same period last year.

WestJet's load factor year to date was 78.2 percent, up from 74.2 percent, the Calgary-based airline said late on Tuesday.

Air Canada's available seat miles in November grew to 3.9 billion, the Montreal-based carrier said.

Revenue passenger miles (RPM) for November were 3.0 billion, up 4.1 percent from 2.9 billion. Year to date, RPM increased 1.8 percent to 41.5 billion, Air Canada said.

WestJet reported its available seat miles rose to 1.06 billion in the month, up from 840.3 million in November 2005. Its November RPM jumped to 780.4 million from 604.2 million a year before.

Year to date, WestJet saw available seat miles rise to 11.4 billion from 9.7 billion in the same period last year. RPM year-to-date rose to 8.9 billion from 7.2 billion in the same 2005 period.