Both AC and WS have reported increased load factors and greater system wide traffic for the month of May, however, capacity increases outstripped passenger growth.

Air Canada is reporting a 82.3% load factor vs. 83.3% in May of 2014 on a system-wide capacity increased of 9.8%. On the additional capacity, system wide traffic for May increased 8.5%. Air Canada reports traffic results on a system-wide basis, including regional airlines from which Air Canada purchases capacity and Air Canada rouge®.

"I am pleased to report a load factor of 82.3% and an increase in traffic of 8.5% for the month of May – a month during which all markets performed consistent with our expectations," said Calin Rovinescu, President & Chief Executive Officer. "Air Canada generated greater traffic in all markets led by significant growth in the U.S. transborder, Atlantic and Pacific markets. These strong results underscore the effectiveness of our commercial strategy focusing on international growth.”

In May Air Canada launched new routes to Osaka, Venice, Austin and Atlantic City, as well as expansion to their Western Canadian regional network. Seasonal services to Tokyo Narita ex YYZ also returned to the AC network.

WestJet reported a May load factor of 77.2%. Traffic increased 6.6% year-over-year on increased capacity of 9.1%. The airline flew a record 1.6 million pax in May, a year-over-year increase of 3.9%, or more than 63,000 additional pax. WestJet also reported an improvement in their on-time performance rate of 8.3 percentage points resulting in 93.2% of flights operating on time.

"We are pleased with our strong year over year traffic growth as we flew a record 1.6 million guests for the month of May while continuing to improve our on-time performance," said WestJet President & CEO Gregg Saretsky. "I want to thank our more than 10,000 WestJetters for continuing to deliver our brand of friendly caring service each and every day."