Rising demand for premium class travel helped boost Air Canada's passenger revenue 11.2 percent year over year in the third quarter to $5.02 billion Canadian. The carrier saw "greater proportional growth" of premium economy passengers, and business cabin revenue rose $98 million Canadian, or 13 percent, chief commercial officer and EVP Lucie Guillemette said on an earnings call. Traffic rose 7.5 percent as capacity increased 6.7 percent, and load factor rose 0.6 percentage points to 85.9 percent. Yield increased 3.4 percent. Air Canada reported a net income of $645 million Canadian, down from $1.7 billion Canadian in the third quarter of 2017. Net income in the third quarter of last year included a $758 million Canadian income tax recovery.
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