The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday, Oct. 6, edition that CIBC World Markets analyst Kevin Chiang has reaffirmed his "outperformer" call on Air Canada. The Globe's David Leeder writes in the Eye On Equities column that Mr. Chiang shaved his share target back by $3 to $30. Analysts on average target the shares at $31. Mr. Chiang says in a note: "A key focus this earnings season for the Canadian airlines will be around off-peak demand comments/trends. While there are broader concerns over consumer demand with U.S. carriers commenting on softer trends exiting August, we would argue that Canadian airlines are more insulated given the amount of pent-up demand in the system. Canadian airlines are also facing supply chain bottlenecks that limit how fast they can increase capacity. While fuel prices will weigh on near-term earnings (we have taken down our Q3/23 and 2023 earnings for AC further on higher fuel prices), we believe the fare environment remains supportive enough to allow the sector to pass along higher input costs. One way we look at this for AC is to consider that prior to the move in jet fuel, it was trading at about 4x EV to forward EBITDA versus approximately 3.2 times today."