Air Canada , the country's largest airline, flew with fewer empty seats in August compared to a year ago, as it cut capacity.
Meanwhile, Westjet Airlines Ltd. , Canada's number two carrier, saw more empty seats in August than a year ago as the number of passengers travelling shrank faster than the airline cut capacity.
Air Canada reported a record load factor of 86.8 per cent for August, which includes traffic on its regional partner Jazz Air Income Fund .
The August load factor, which is the percentage of available seats filled with paying passengers, was up compared with 84.4 per cent for the same month last year.
However, Air Canada said its system traffic, which is measured in revenue passenger miles, decreased 0.9 per cent, while capacity was reduced 3.6 per cent.
"These record load factor results, for the second consecutive month, combined with stable system traffic year-over-year, reflect not only our ongoing disciplined approach to capacity management, but also the strong response from our customers and travel trade partners," said Ben Smith, the airline's chief commercial officer.
Westjet said its load factor fell to 84.5 per cent in August from 88.4 per cent for the same month last year.
System traffic decreased 4.7 per cent year-over-year, while capacity fell 0.4 per cent.
"In what continues to be a tough environment for airlines, we are pleased with our strong August load factor," said WestJet president and chief executive officer Sean Durfy.
"While we are encouraged by the talk of an economic upturn, and are not seeing further declines in demand, we remain cautious about a recovery."
WestJet said it expects third quarter revenue per available seat mile to fall 16 to 18 per cent compared to same time last year.