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Toronto Pearson International Airport saw passenger volumes rise by 135 per cent in the three months ending on Sept. 30, as the operator of Canada’s busiest airport rode a tumultuous return to travel. Toronto Pearson’s operator, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, made a profit of $73-million in the third quarter, reversing a loss of $58-million in the same period a year ago. Revenue rose by 72 per cent to $422-million. The financial results released on Thursday underscore the size of the wave of pentup demand for travel unleashed by the easing of pandemic and related restrictions. The GTAA said the number of travellers rose by 6.5 million to 11.2 million, compared with the year-earlier quarter. This lags the prepandemic third quarter of 2019, when 14.2 million passengers travelled through Toronto Pearson. Toronto Pearson, other Canadian airports and airlines were ill-prepared for the wave of 2022, as travellers faced delays, congestion and lineups due to a lack of workers in air...

A passenger makes their way through Toronto's Pearson International Airport. The percentage of cancelled and delayed flights at Canadian airports has declined since the summer, but remains elevated. Cole Burston/The Canadian Press Air passenger volume this holiday season is poised to reach prepandemic standards, but whether Canadians are in for the normal level of peak travel stress or a repeat of the mayhem that unfolded across the country’s major airports over the summer remains unclear. Despite a slew of backlog-busting initiatives by airport authorities, some experts still see a significant risk of widespread cancellations and delays. John Gradek, co-ordinator of McGill University’s aviation management program, points to a “very real possibility” of holiday flight cancellations if airlines’ travel schedules turn out to be more ambitious than what airports can handle. While the percentage of cancelled and delayed flights at Canadian airports has declined since the summer, it r...

Canada imposes user fees on passengers and airlines that are higher than anywhere else, according to WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech. Photo illustration by the Globe and Mail /iStockPhoto / Getty Images Alexis von Hoensbroech’s airline career has spanned the globe and beyond. The new WestJet Airlines Ltd. chief executive has worked in the business in Asia and Europe, moving people and cargo in the world’s most dense and competitive markets. Before that, he obtained a doctorate at a German school that focuses on astrophysics, the galaxy and the skies above. But it was in Canada, where Mr. Hoensbroech, 52, took the helm at Calgary-based WestJet in February, that he made a surprising discovery: A vast country highly dependent on air travel imposes user fees on passengers and airlines that are out of this world. “I don’t know a single country in the world that’s as expensive as Canada. Landing fees, gate fees – this is far, far, far more expensive than any other country,” he said. Ale...

RBC is buying HSBC's Canadian unit in the largest domestic banking deal on record. Duane Cole/Mark Blinch/Tausi Insider Getting caught up on a week that got away? Here’s your weekly digest of The Globe’s most essential business and investing stories, with insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and more. RBC buys HSBC Canada in the country’s largest bank deal Royal Bank of Canada is buying HSBC Bank Canada for $13.5-billion in the biggest domestic banking deal on record, bolstering RBC’s position as the country’s largest institution in the industry. As James Bradshaw reports, Canadian banks have been eyeing the transaction for years. HSBC Canada, a subsidiary of Britain-based giant HSBC Holdings PLC and the seventh-largest bank in the country by assets, has strengths in commercial lending and mortgages and has been consistently profitable. If approved, the deal would extend RBC’s lead over competitor banks by tens of billions of dollars in both loan...

Passengers queue for the check in desk at Heathrow airport, in London, on June 1. HANNAH MCKAY/Reuters Global airlines are predicting their first industry-wide profit since 2019 next year as air travel rebounds from COVID-19 restrictions, while a new war of words erupted with airports on Tuesday over rising air fares and ground charges. Airlines lost tens of billions of dollars in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, but air travel has partially recovered and some airports have struggled to cope. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) now expects a net profit of $4.7-billion for the industry next year, with more than 4 billion passengers set to fly. It had previously said only that profits were “within reach” in 2023. For 2022, IATA narrowed its forecast for industry-wide losses to $6.9-billion from $9.7-billion. “That is a great achievement considering the scale of the financial and economic damage caused by government-imposed pandemic restrictions,” IATA Director General ...

A Embraer E195-E2 jet under construction. NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images The upstart Toronto airline with a raccoon as its mascot is poised to become a bigger pest to the larger carriers. Porter Airlines is set to receive the first of its Embraer E-195 jets this month, a 132-seat aircraft that will drive the expansion of the carrier’s network and help it compete with its mainline rivals. Michael Deluce, the chief executive officer of privately owned Porter, said the airline is targeting economy-class passengers, who comprise 90 per cent of the market, and will extend its reach to all of North America, as well as Caribbean vacation spots. Unlike its fleet of turboprops at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, the new planes will be based at Toronto Pearson International Airport, putting Porter in direct competition with Air Canada, Air Transat, WestJet Airlines and the low-cost carriers in Eastern Canada. Porter Airlines ordered to pay $130-million to operator of Toronto’s island airpor...

Passengers line-up at Pearson International Airport, in Toronto. Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press With the holiday travel season around the corner, Canada’s busiest airport is looking to redeem itself from a reputation of cancellations and delays this past summer. Toronto Pearson International Airport released its travel tips for passengers Tuesday. The airport said the week leading up to Christmas is expected to be the busiest time to travel as well as the days around Jan. 9, when many children return to school. In preparation for the spike, the airport has introduced an online security reservation system, YYZ Express, that lets customers on select flights reserve their security screening spot in advance. In September, the airport launched an online dashboard so that passengers can receive live wait times on security screening, customs, airline counters and baggage carousels. The airport peak times dashboard is another function Pearson recommends customers use that shows the ...

Travellers wait at the Pierre-Elliot Trudeau International Airport in Montreal, as the snow comes down on Dec. 23, 2022. ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP/Getty Images Flight disruptions across the country are expected to carry into the weekend, as Friday’s severe snowstorms in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec continue to batter airports – with many travellers stranded during a peak holiday travel period. Data from live flight-tracking platform FlightAware show that at least 60 Saturday flights to and from international airports in Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa alone have been cancelled, and a handful have been marked already as delayed. The reported disruptions are an improvement from Friday but could worsen if weather conditions do not improve. WestJet Airlines Ltd. said Friday afternoon that it would extend its cancellations into the holiday weekend, with at least 15 flights cancelled on Saturday so far. The company previously cancelled all flights in or out of Toronto Pearson International A...