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Air Canada reported earnings Wednesday. In the second quarter, the company wrung C$466 million ($339 million USD) in profits from C$5.5 billion (around $4 billion USD) in revenue. Both of those numbers are weaker than they were a year ago.
Besides the weakened general demand that is plaguing the industry — the carrier said its planes were a little emptier recently —Mark Galardo, an Air Canada executive in charge of revenue and network planning, echoed similar complaints from Air France and Delta Air Lines regarding the Olympics. Galardo said the Paris games were a fiscal drag, as tourists avoid flying to Paris so they don’t have to navigate the city during the quadrennial athletic spectacle.
“What we saw in particular is core Europe markets like France, Germany, where there’s a significant point-of-sale Europe component, that was quite weak,” he said. “One, the European economy is kind of stagnant right now. Secondly, to your point, the Olympics and a bit of the euro soccer tournament all contributed to some of those declines.”
Air Canada shares were down about 2% in Wednesday trading.