Montreal (AFP)

Air Canada, hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic like other airlines, announced Monday a loss of more than one billion Canadian dollars (682 million euros) in the first quarter.

This colossal loss comes after more than six years of continuous profitability for the Canadian carrier, which had to reduce its capacity by 90% due to the pandemic.

These results "reflect the gravity and brutality of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Air Canada", from the end of January, "with the suspension of services to China", said Calin Rovinescu, CEO of the transporter.

"The incidence increased sharply in March due to mandatory physical distance measures, unprecedented travel restrictions imposed by governments in Canada and around the world, and the cessation of economic activity in various countries, "he said.

For the first three months of 2020, Air Canada suffered a loss of $ 1.049 billion, compared to a net profit of $ 345 million a year ago.

Excluding exceptional items and reduced to one share, the loss stood at 1.49 dollars, 19 cents more than the consensus of the average analyst.

These red ink results are mainly explained by a foreign exchange loss of $ 711 million, while the depreciation of the Canadian dollar against the American dollar increased the carrier's debt denominated in this currency by $ 692 million.

Quarterly sales fell to $ 3.7 billion from more than $ 4.4 billion a year ago.

"We are living in the darkest period in the history of commercial aviation," said the CEO of Air Canada.

The company will not be able to return to 2019 levels in terms of revenue and capacity before "at least three years", he warned.

It plans for the second quarter to maintain a reduced capacity of 85 to 90% and about 75% for the fall compared to last year.

Faced with the crisis, Air Canada decided to accelerate the withdrawal of 79 older aircraft from its fleet, namely Boeing 767s, Airbus A319s and Embraer E190s, the latter being put out of service immediately.

Since March 22, it has operated more than 500 international cargo flights to meet the need for medical equipment in the face of the pandemic and intends to operate up to 150 such flights per week until the end of June.

These flights are operated by Boeing 777 and 787, as well as converted Airbus A330s, whose cargo loading space has been doubled thanks to the removal of seats from the passenger cabin.

Air Canada also availed itself of a wage subsidy from the Canadian government to keep most of its approximately 16,500 employees previously unemployed for the period March 15 to June 6 employed.

The company has withdrawn all of its earnings forecasts for fiscal years 2020 and 2021.

© 2020 AFP