Air Canada has released that due to its improved liquidity position and ongoing recovery from the pandemic it is withdrawing from further Government of Canada financial support. The support package, announced in April 2021, provided the carrier access to interest bearing loans of CA$5.375 billion through several separate credit facilities. To date, Air Canada has only accessed the facility solely dedicated to refunding customers’ non-refundable tickets, while all other remaining facilities totalling CA$3.975 billion have not been used.
“Air Canada’s recovery from COVID-19 continues. We are recalling employees, adding new routes and frequencies to our network, and restoring services and, last quarter, we completed a CA$7.1-billion financing. Today, in another convincing sign of our progress, we are announcing our withdrawal from the major funding provisions of our support agreement with the Government of Canada for the CA$3.975 billion in facilities that were never accessed and remain unused,” said Michael Rousseau, President and Chief Executive Officer. (£1.00 = CA$1.70 at time of publication).