Air Canada forecasts at least three years of fewer flights and earnings

With losses topping $1 billion last quarter, Air Canada predicts it will take at least three years to return to the flight capacity and earnings heights of 2019 due to the "cataclysmic effect" of the COVID-19 pandemic. "We're now living through the darkest period ever in the history of commercial aviation, significantly worse than 9/11, SARS and the 2008 financial crisis," CEO Calin Rovinescu said on a conference call with analysts Monday. "There is no doubt that we are not yet out of the trough