Air Canada and Canadian Airlines flew 12.6 per
cent more revenue passenger miles (RPMs) in December 2000 than flown by the
two carriers in the same month of 1999, according to preliminary traffic
figures.  Capacity increased by 5.6 per cent, resulting in a passenger load
factor of 66.5 per cent, compared with 62.3 per cent in December 1999.

According to Danielle Poudrette, Vice President, Marketing, “December`s
load factor was up 4.2 percentage points over that of December 1999, which had
been negatively affected by the millenium change. Our efforts to re-optimize
our capacity, which began last month and will continue into this year,
resulted in a solid load factor performance for the December period.

The statistics for the full year provide a good illustration of the
benefit of the combined schedule: overall load factor is up 0.6 percentage
points, and rationalization of domestic capacity resulted in a 2.4 percentage
point load factor improvement in this market.”

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