ACE Aviation Has 4th-Qtr Loss on Record Fuel Prices

ACE Aviation Holdings Inc., owner of Air Canada, the country’s largest airline, reported a loss in the fourth quarter because of surging jet-fuel costs.

The net loss was C$103 million ($89.8 million), or C$1.02 a share, compared with a profit of C$15 million, or 17 cents, a year earlier, Montreal-based ACE Aviation said in a statement today. Revenue rose 15 percent to C$2.36 billion.

ACE and rival WestJet Airlines Ltd. raised fares in a bid to counter a 32 percent increase in fuel prices. WestJet missed analysts’ estimates for the fourth quarter on Feb. 8 after fuel costs pared earnings, sending the stock to its biggest drop in more than 20 months. To help cope with fuel costs, ACE announced plans today to cut 20 percent of its non-unionized workforce.

“The same factors that impacted WestJet’s earnings have even a bigger impact on Air Canada, because they’re bigger,” Research Capital Corp. analyst Jacques Kavafian said in an interview before the results were released.

Bloomberg