MONTREAL/CALGARY — For the month of November, both Air Canada and WestJet had higher load factors.

Air Canada reported a system load factor of 77.7%, versus 76.5% in November 2013, representing an increase of 1.2 percentage points on a system-wide capacity increase of 6.9%.

WestJet reported November 2014 traffic results with a load factor of 80.5%, an increase of 0.8 percentage points year over year. Revenue passenger miles (RPMs), or traffic, increased 8.0% year over year, and capacity, measured in available seat miles (ASMs), grew 6.9% over the same period. The airline flew a record 1.5 million guests in November, a year-over-year increase of 7.5% or approximately 108,000 additional guests.

“We continue to be very pleased with our strong traffic growth as we achieved our second highest load factor in November, even as WestJet Encore, which operates at lower load factors similar to most regional airlines, continued to expand,” said WestJet President and CEO Gregg Saretsky.

Air Canada saw system wide traffic for November increase by 8.7%. Air Canada reports traffic results on a system-wide basis, including Air Canada rouge, which began operations on July 1, 2013, and regional airlines from which Air Canada purchases capacity.

According to Calin Rovinescu, President and Chief Executive Officer, “led by increases in traffic on Atlantic and U.S. transborder routes, Air Canada generated greater traffic for the month in all markets. These strong results achieved during a traditionally off-peak travel season demonstrate the on-going effectiveness of our commercial strategy”.