Australia Tourism Booms; Air Canada Profits Soar; Pearson Airport Baggage Woes

Tourism Australia’s unveiled Down Under visitation numbers at the Australia Marketplace North America event in Los Angeles this week. And Canada is kicking some serious rear end.

In May 2023, Canadian arrivals in Australia reached 94% of 2019 levels, while the United States was at 75%. For the 12-month period ending in May 2023, Canadian arrivals were at 74% of pre-pandemic levels, while the U.S. was at 66%.

Canadian visitor spending has reached 92% of 2019 levels, while the U.S. is at 78%, said Chris Allison, Vice President, The Americas, Tourism Australia.

He wouldn’t quite say that Canada is pushing the U.S. to the visitation wrestling mat, but Allison did say the Canadian market has been a key contributor to Australia’s tourism recovery.

“We’ve seen a really strong performance from Canada,” he said this week at the Australia Marketplace North America in Manhattan Beach, California.

AIR CANADA PROFITS SOAR IN SECOND QUARTER

Fuelled by a strong rebound in international travel and a boom in business travel, Air Canada today reported a massive net profit for the second quarter of 2023.

Canada’s largest airline reported a net profit of $838 million for the financial quarter ending June 30. That’s up from a net loss of $386 million last year, which means a net gain of more than $1.2 billion.

Air Canada said its operating revenues in the quarter reached $5.4 billion, an increase of 36% from a year ago. Operating income was $802 million, a year-over-year improvement of over $1 billion.

“We are particularly pleased with our international performance, propelling nearly 70% of the year-over-year increase in passenger revenues. Air Canada Vacations continued to see high demand for leisure travel packages, and Aeroplan added compelling new partners and grew its membership,” said Michael Rousseau, President and Chief Executive Officer of Air Canada.

Speaking on a conference call with media and financial analysts, Rosseau said AC had a load factor of 88% in the quarter and was at 91% in July, “reflecting overall strong summer demand.”

“We’re particularly pleased with our international performance, representing about 70% of the year-over-year increase in passenger revenues,” said Mark Galardo, Executive Vice President, Planning and Revenue Management. “Demand for trans-Atlantic services was stronger as compared to last year, translating into a 19% capacity growth and a nine percentage point increase in load factor.”

Rousseau said Air Canada is working hard on reliability.

“We’re spending a lot of time on improving our on-time performance. April and May were very solid,” but June and July numbers were hurt by severe weather and other issues out of the airline’s control, he said.

Business travel also is picking up, he said.

Another addition made in the quarter was an improved entertainment system on AC flights, including Mattel programming and Apple TV+. Rosseau also noted the new Maple Leaf Lounge at San Francisco International Airport (it’s awesome, by the way), and the new Aspire lounge at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.

PEARSON AIRPORT BAGGAGE WOES

It was too good to be true.

My Air Canada flight on Tuesday from Los Angeles International to Toronto Pearson took off just seven minutes late, which is nothing. The flight attendant said it would be a quick flight, and it was. I even got to watch a TV show on Apple TV+, thanks to the new Air Canada in-flight entertainment system.

We were scheduled to touch down around 8:10 or 8:15 p.m. but the landing gear hit the tarmac around 7:35 p.m. Yay!

I was thinking maybe I could be home at a good time. But it all came to a grinding halt when we got to Pearson.

We were taxiing towards the terminal when our pilot came on the p.a. system and said he had been told there wasn’t an open gate for us (it can happen when you’re a half-hour early). He said he was told it would be 15 minutes.

About a half-hour later the pilot came back on the p.a. system to say we would perhaps be moving soon. He apologized for the wait, which he had been told would be 15 minutes.

“I hate it when they lie to me,” he said.

You and me both.

We finally got to the gate at 8:27 p.m, some 50 minutes after we landed. Of course, we were stuck WAY out at Gate 95 and had to walk through narrow, ugly corridors to get to Customs. I decided I’d use the washroom in the customs hall at Terminal One but I had to wait. Why? Because there are two urinals and one stall in the men’s bathroom at the customs hall. There are often 1,000 people in line for customs, but there’s just two urinals and one stall in the main bathroom. Who designed this airport, anyway?

I think three of the five Nexus machines were down at Canada customs, but I got through okay and went to baggage claim.

It was a sea of people. I looked up at the screen that shows arriving baggage information and immediately had a bad feeling. It was exactly 8:51 p.m. (I checked the time of the photo I took on my iPhone), and the baggage video screen said that bags from a flight from San Diego that landed at 7:02 were being offloaded, and that bags from a flight from Las Vegas that landed at 7:21 p.m. were en route.

Reminder: this was 8:51 p.m.! The baggage screen at Pearson was telling me that bags from a flight that had landed almost two hours ago were being offloaded, and that bags from a flight that had landed 90 minutes prior were en route!

I think the baggage screen information was wrong, because I didn’t see any bags from Vegas or San Diego. That’s a problem, as these screens should have accurate information.

I stood waiting for my bag and started talking with a frustrated woman next to me at the carousel. She said she had arrived from Los Angeles at 7:24 and still didn’t have her bag. Hers finally arrived at about 9 p.m., which means she waited an hour and 46 minutes.

Disgraceful.

I didn’t see our bags coming in, so I went to another screen in the terminal to see if maybe they were going to another carousel. As I was standing below a screen trying to find out, someone on my flight  walked past and said he had heard our bags were going to a new carousel. I followed him to carousel six, when I heard an announcement about our carousel change.

I waited roughly another ten minutes or so and finally got my bags at 9:35 p.m. That’s an hour an eight minutes after we got to the gate.

Terrible, but not as bad as the woman who waited nearly 40 minutes longer than I did.

Pearson put out a statement a couple weeks ago saying almost everything was great; tarmac wait times were down, security lines were shorter, and bags were arriving more quickly.

“Airlines manage baggage delivery, but Toronto Pearson has made it an ongoing focus for collaborative improvement,” officials said. “The average wait time for all bags arriving at the carousel from July 3 to 9 was 20, compared to 26 minutes last year.”

I’m not so sure. All I know is it’s rare for me to get checked bags delivered in less than half an hour. I find 35-40 minutes is more the average.

I got an email from Pearson a couple days after my trip to say they’d had an equipment malfunction.

“We had an electrician resolve the problem as quickly as possible and apologize to any passengers affected.”

Pearson says issues like Tuesday night’s problems are rare.

“Our system’s availability has regularly surpassed 98% and even 99% this summer, with average wait times hovering around 20 minutes. The GTAA has been using predictive AI to push as much maintenance as possible into non-peak hours, but breakdowns still occasionally happen, as they do with any mechanical system. We have over 30 kilometres of system that runs continuously.”