People have been bitten by the travel bug in 2022 and it shows.
BC Ferries had more vehicle and passenger traffic, revenue and net earnings as compared to the same time last year.
From April 1st to September 30th, more than 5.4 million vehicles were transported by BC Ferries. This is an increase of 4% from 2021’s 5.2 million vehicles in the same timeframe.
“As a result of our employees’ commitment to our customers and communities, we hit a new record for vehicle traffic levels and delivered 1,700 more round trips during the first half of the fiscal year,” said Jill Sharland, BC Ferries’ Interim President and CEO.
“Our service is an integral part of British Columbia’s transportation system and I cannot thank the staff enough for going above and beyond to keep the system moving.”
In just three months, from July 1st to September 30th, BC Ferries carried 7.5 million passengers and 3 million vehicles. In 2021 within the same timespan, they only carried 7 million travellers and transported 3 million vehicles.
Without travel restrictions in place, more people are travelling and the numbers prove this. Travel on BC Ferries is up by 28% when looking at year-to-date numbers. In total in 2022, they have transported 12.9 million passengers.
That is 15 times the population of all of Vancouver Island.
Net earnings for BC Ferries is up too. Year-to-date since April 1st, they’ve generated $88.3 million as compared to 2021’s 84.6 million within the same timespan.
Their overall revenue from April 1st to September 30th is $608 million, which is up by $62 million.
The company believes that new fare choices that include “saver” options for cheaper fares are the reason they’ve seen increased traffic in the last few months.
They say over one million costumes have taken advantage of the “saver” option since March 1st.
According to BC Ferries, expenses have been up this year too.
Higher fuel costs and higher labour costs have put their expenses up by 13% in the last fiscal quarter. This equates to 56.9 million.
With more people willing to travel this year, BC Ferries is hoping that the next fiscal quarter will echo this last report.
