The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that Air Canada posted its second consecutive profitable quarter on Friday, signalling Canada's largest airline is slowly leaving behind the financial ruin of the pandemic as travellers return to the skies. The Globe's Eric Atkins writes that Air Canada's profit in the first three months of 2023 reached $4-million, compared with a loss of $974-million in the same period of 2022. Operating revenue almost doubled to $4.9-billion from the year-ago quarter due to higher demand for air travel. When compared with the prepandemic quarter of 2019, sales are up by 10 per cent. Walter Spracklin, a stock analyst at Royal Bank of Canada, said the results are better than he expected. He pointed to Air Canada's strong seat bookings in the short term, but said it will be important to watch how demand holds up amid a weakening global economy and competition from discount airlines. Fadi Chamoun, an analyst at BMO, said Air Canada's first-quarter results exceeded expectations due in part to strong ticket sales and fuller planes. For the first quarter of 2023, Air Canada's passenger revenues more than doubled, and more than half the increase came from international markets.