MONTREAL — Air Canada may be the official carrier of Team Canada, but that didn’t stop the Paris Olympics from hobbling its summer sales. Despite Canadians’ continued thirst for Mediterranean getaways, the airline’s transatlantic ticket proceeds suffered in its latest quarter as travellers from France and Germany opted to stay on the Continent to soak up the Olympic Games as well as Euro 2024. “Core Europe, markets like France, Germany, where there’s a significant point-of-sale Europe component, that was quite weak,” said Mark Galardo, Air Canada’s head of revenue and network planning.
“The Olympics and a bit of the Euro soccer tournament all contributed to some of those declines.” The distracting athletics along with a glut of Atlantic flights from competitors helped prompt Air Canada to cut its capacity for trips across the pond, Galardo said. While the Olympics are typically a tourism boon, many vacationers opted to steer clear of the City of Light, with parts of central Paris closed off for the duration of the games.
“A number of travellers have decided to try to avoid France during the Olympics,” said analyst Chris Murray of ATB Capital Markets. The weaker demand contributed to Air Canada’s 51 per cent year-over-year dive in profit last quarter — even while revenues rose. “Our second-quarter results were solid, although they did not achieve our internal expectations,” CEO Michael Rousseau told analysts on a conference call Wednesday.
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