Buoyed by a 39.6% increase in second-quarter net profit to C$236 million ($210.4 million), Air Canada parent ACE Aviation Holdings announced Friday its intention to launch an IPO of a minority stake in the mainline and to "monetize" Air Canada Technical Services later this year.

"The board has reaffirmed its strategy to maximize shareholder value by surfacing the underlying value of the subsidiaries," ACE President and CEO Robert Milton said. He added that last year's flotation of the Aeroplan loyalty program and the launch of the Jazz IPO at the beginning of 2006 (ATWOnline, Jan. 26) "were very successful [and] we expect both Air Canada and ACTS to benefit in a similar way as we move ahead."

ACE operating revenues rose 9% to C$2.68 billion and expenses increased 10% to C$2.5 billion, leaving operating profit stable at C$181 million compared to C$178 million in the second quarter of 2005. The company realized a pre-tax gain of C$100 million on its sale of shares in US Airways (ATWOnline, July 10).

The Transportation Services division posted second-quarter operating income of C$113 million, a 6.6% increase over the year-ago quarter. Aeroplan's operating income climbed 24% to C$31 million, Jazz's operating income of C$36.5 million was up 33.2% (ATWOnline, Aug. 11) and losses in the airframe maintenance division dropped ACTS' operating income 95% to C$1 million.

The company flew a consolidated 12.25 billion RPMs in the June quarter, up 5% over the year-ago period. Capacity rose 3% to 14.93 billion ASMs, pushing up load factor 1.9 points to 82.1%. Yield increased 3% to C18.6 cents and passenger RASM was up 6% to C15.3 cents. Operating RASM also rose 6% to C18 cents. Unit costs increased 6% to C16.8 cents and 4% to C12.5 cents excluding fuel.

For the six-month period, ACE's net profit nearly quadrupled to C$354 million from C$92 million. Revenues climbed 11% to C$5.17 billion against a 13% rise in expenses to C$5.05 billion. Operating income fell 29.2% to C$119 million from C$168 million.

In July, ACE carriers flew a consolidated 4.95 billion RPMs, a 3.3% increase over the year-ago month, against a 3.7% rise in capacity to 5.99 billion ASMs that dropped load factor 0.3 point to 82.7%. The mainline flew 4.59 billion RPMs, up 0.8%, 5.49 billion ASMs, also up 0.8%, and load factor was a static 83.6%.