My name is Arielle Meloul-Wechsler, and as Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer and Public Affairs, it is my pleasure to welcome you to our 2023 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. In October of last year, a ceremony was held at our head office to unveil our Indigenous commitment, acknowledging Air Canada's responsibility to support Indigenous inclusion internally and externally is recognized. Our commitment is to develop an organizational culture that exemplifies inclusion for Indigenous peoples, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit, and to engage meaningfully with Indigenous communities that have long been marginalized in our country. We reiterate our commitment today and also acknowledge that Air Canada's domestic and transborder network spans many treaty lands, unceded lands, and traditional territories of Indigenous nations, tribes, and governments across Turtle Island, North America. As such, Air Canada acknowledges the Indigenous people's ancestral and traditional lands we fly over.
I will serve as the moderator today and now turn the meeting over to our chair, Mr. Vagn Sørensen. Good morning and welcome to Air Canada's 2023 Annual Meeting of Shareholders.
My name is Vagn Sørensen, and I'm pleased to preside over this meeting as chair of the Air Canada Board of Directors.
I declare that the meeting is in session.
We've taken steps to allow shareholders to participate in this meeting and will shortly go over the procedures we'll follow, including how shareholders can vote, ask questions, and share comments.
The meeting will take place in French and in English. Simultaneous interpretation is provided, and you can select French or English at the top right of your screen.
This morning, in addition to Arielle, I'm accompanied by the following members of the Air Canada team. First, Michael Rousseau, our Chief Executive Officer. Amos Kazzaz, our Chief Financial Officer. Caroline Hadrovic, our Corporate Secretary, who will act as the secretary of this meeting. Craig Landry, our Chief Operations Officer. Marc Barbeau, our Chief Legal Officer, who will also assist me with the conduct of this meeting. Mark Galardo, our Executive Vice President, Revenue and Network Planning. Mark Nasr, our Executive Vice President, Marketing and Digital. Also attending the meeting are Nicole Murray and Mario Longpré, representatives of PricewaterhouseCoopers, our auditors. Finally, members of the board of directors and of our senior management are also attending the meeting. Before I go further, I'd ask Mark to take us through certain preliminary matters.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me briefly review a number of procedures. First, voting and asking questions at today's virtual meeting will be through the online platform only. Starting now, you can register your votes on all items of business to be voted upon. The polls will close shortly after the last item has been considered. Shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders who obtain a control number from TSX Trust Company, our transfer agent and registrar, may vote and submit questions or comments during the meeting. If you have already voted by proxy, there is nothing more to do. However, if you haven't done so and you want to vote, or if you have and you want to change your vote, click on the voting icon at the top of the screen. Your questions or comments on the agenda items are welcome.
You can submit them prior to the relevant moment in French or in English. A general question period is also scheduled at the end of the meeting. In either case, click on the message icon at the top of your screen. If your question is of a personal nature or if cannot be addressed for lack of time or for any other reason, an Air Canada representative will be in touch with you after the meeting as long as you provide us with contact information. Number two, a few words about some regulatory requirements. As you know, Air Canada must be controlled by Canadians, and Canadians must have ownership and control of at least 51% of voting shares. For today's meeting, we will determine for that purpose how many votes cast are cast by Canadians and non-Canadians.
That is why we are asking you to fill out ownership declarations as part of today's voting process. If non-Canadian votes were higher than the maximum prescribed %, they would be distributed to the pro rata of the prescribed levels. Based on the latest figures we have, it is unlikely that this will be necessary at today's meeting. Third, given that our comments in today's meeting might contain future forward-looking statements about Air Canada's perspectives, objectives, and strategies, I will refer you to our notice regarding forward-looking statements included in Air Canada's public information material, which can be consulted on aircanada.com or on SEDAR. Fourth, finally, I confirm that Francine Beauséjour and Isabelle Bachand of TSX Trust Company have been appointed by the chair of the meeting as scrutineers.
Their report confirms that shareholders and proxy holders representing more than 25% of shares of Air Canada with voting rights are present today. I turn the meeting back over to the chair.
Thank you, Mark. Thank you to all our shareholders for their presence at this meeting.
I have a few introductory remarks before proceeding with the business of the meeting and our President and CEO's presentation of management's report for 2022 and our corporate priorities. This was a year of transition for us and for our industry. Even before 2022, we began to prepare for it. We continued to do so as we face renewed travel restrictions, geopolitical issues such as the war in Ukraine, and other uncertainties. We were determined to restore our operational depth in advance of the travel demand we foresaw when travel restrictions would be lifted. The year 2022 was a year of transition for us and for our industry. Even before 2022, we began to prepare for it.
We continued to do so as we faced renewed travel restrictions, geopolitical issues such as the war in Ukraine, and other uncertainties at the beginning of 2022. We were determined to restore our operational depth in advance of the travel demand we foresaw when travel restrictions would be lifted.
Throughout the pandemic and through the transition we saw in 2022, there are long-standing values and priorities guiding us. We've continued to place safety first at the heart of all we do. We want to reflect all of Canada at its best and to continue to nurture diversity at all levels of Air Canada. We strive for the same at the board level, which is why we're pleased to present to you today Claudette McGowan as a candidate to become a new member of the board. Her election would bring to nearly 40% the percentage of women board members. I'm proud of what our board has done these past years, and we remain determined to do even better.
We are also proud of Air Canada's heritage in terms of Canada's official languages, and we are working with our stakeholders in Quebec, where our head office is located, to promote the French language.
Our commitment to diversity, official languages, and equity are only part of your company's larger commitment to ESG. This also includes a very robust climate action program that is anchored by our target to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. We know shareholders are deeply interested in ESG, which is why we improve disclosure in this area, so you can follow our progress. The board looks forward to the future and is confident that the Air Canada team will continue to carry ever more people to their destinations and connect them with each other, something we all take great pride in facilitating every day. I take the opportunity to acknowledge and to thank my fellow board members for their outstanding commitment during the past year and to thank Claudette for agreeing to join us and to stand for election today.
We look forward to her contributions to our work. I acknowledge and thank you, our shareholders, for your support and investment in our great company. We have a lot of ground to cover today, but before we do so, I note that the minutes of the annual meeting of shareholders held on March 28th, 2022, have been tabled and will be kept with the records of the meeting. Our 2023 meeting today will unfold as follows. I'll begin by confirming the establishment of quorum and proper constitution of our meeting, then proceed with the formal items of business identified in the proxy circular. Our President and CEO, Michael Rousseau, will present management's report. After that, we will announce the outcome of the votes based on the preliminary results of the scrutineers' tabulations of today's vote.
Finally, we conclude the meeting with a general question and comment session. If you have any questions or comments, I invite you to submit them now in either official language through the meeting platform. With that, I can report that the scrutineers have advised that we have more than 39.7 million Class A variable voting shares and 78.4 million Class B Voting Shares represented at the meeting, who, as you know, will be voted together by their holders. I therefore declare that notice of this meeting having been duly given and a quorum of shareholders being present based on the scrutineers' report as to attendance, the meeting is properly convened and constituted for the transaction of such business as may properly be brought before us.
We can now proceed with the business of the meeting in the order of the items set out in the proxy circular. To facilitate this, we've asked some of our employees from Canada and around the world to move and second the motions for the adoption of the resolutions we'll be considering. I thank them for contributing to our virtual proceedings today and also take this opportunity to express the board's gratitude to all our employees for what they do every day and for their commitment to safety first, always. We now move to the first item of business. That is the tabling of Air Canada's 2022 annual financial statement and the auditor's report on them.
The auditor's consolidated financial statements of Air Canada for the year ended December 31st, 2022, including the auditor's report, have been issued and made available to shareholders, including on our website and on SEDAR. A copy of the statements will be filed with the records of the meeting. No vote is called for on this item of business. Our Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Amos Kazzaz, and representatives of our auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, are present today and are available for any questions you may have relating to the financial statements. Arielle, are there any questions relating to this item of business?
Mr. Chair, there are no questions relating to this item.
Thank you, Arielle. Before I turn to the next item of business, I want to take this moment to acknowledge Amos Kazzaz on his retirement from Air Canada this summer. Amos developed a trusted working relationship with the Board and with our Audit Committee. We're very appreciative of his contributions and sound advice. Before turning to the election of directors, I remind shareholders that the polls are and will remain open until we complete all the items of our meeting's agenda that require shareholders to vote. Again, you may vote by clicking the voting icon at the top of the screen. The next item of business is the election of directors. The Board of Directors has determined that the number of directors be set at 13. All current directors are standing for re-election, together with Claudette McGowan, who's being nominated for the first time.
As I shared earlier, in addition to adding her business experience and technological expertise to the board, the election of Claudette and all our other nominees would bring the number of women on Air Canada's board of directors to five or 38% of the total board membership. This takes us very close to the commitment we made last year to have 40% women board members. Our proxy circular sets out the names of 13 nominees for election as directors, each of whom has confirmed that he or she is prepared to serve and is qualified to serve as a director. The nominees are Amee Chande, Christy Clark , Gary A. Doer, Rob Fyfe, Michael M. Green, Jean-Marc Huët , Claudette McGowan, Madeleine Paquin, Michael Rousseau, Kathleen Taylor, Annette Verschuren, Michael M. Wilson , in addition to myself. Marc, could you confirm we have a motion for the election of the nominees?
Mr. Chairman, I confirm that a motion to elect the 13 persons whose names you have read as directors of Air Canada until the close of the next annual meeting of shareholders has been made by Catherine Hong in Hong Kong and seconded by Luis Noriega Benet in Mexico City.
Arielle, are there any questions or comments relating to this item of business?
Mr. Chair, there are no questions or comments relating to this item.
Thank you, Arielle. The next item of business is the appointment of the auditors. I remind you that the polls remain open. The proxy circular contains the recommendation of our board of directors that shareholders reappoint PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, as the corporation's auditors. As previously indicated, representatives of this firm are attending today's meeting. Marc, could you confirm we have a motion for their appointment of our auditors?
Mr. Chairman, I confirm that a motion to nominate PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, as the corporation's auditors until the close of the next annual meeting of shareholders, has been moved by Michelle Zettler-Orr and seconded by Mark Meese, both in Vancouver.
Arielle, are there any questions or comments relating to this item of business?
Mr. Chairman, there are no questions or comments related to this item.
Thank you, Arielle. The next item of business pertains to the consideration of Air Canada's approach to executive compensation. The report of the Human Resources, Compensation and Pension Committee and the compensation discussion and analysis section in the proxy circular disclose our approach on executive compensation. The results of the vote are advisory and will not be binding on the board of directors. However, the board will take them into account in the mix of information it will consider in establishing Air Canada's approach to executive compensation in the future. Marc, could you confirm we have a motion for the advisory vote?
Mr. Chairman, I confirm that a motion to approve the advisory resolution on Air Canada's approach to executive compensation, as described in the proxy circular related to this meeting, has been made by Vincent Gauthier-Doré in New York City and seconded by Paul Taylor in the United Kingdom.
Merci. Arielle, are there any questions or comments relating to this item of business?
Mr. Chairman, there are no questions or comments relating to this item.
Thank you, Arielle. The last item of business pertains to the adoption of an ordinary resolution regarding the renewal of Air Canada's Shareholder Rights Plan, adopted by the board of directors on March 21, 2023, in order to renew the existing Shareholder Rights Plan, which was originally adopted in 2011 and as amended since then. I remind you once again, polls will remain open until shortly after our final item of business. The Shareholder Rights Plan is designed to foster fair treatment of all shareholders by providing them with an equal opportunity to participate in a takeover bid. It's not being adopted in response to any proposal to acquire control of Air Canada, nor is the board of directors currently aware of any pending or threatened takeover bid for the corporation.
Mark, could you confirm we have a motion for the renewal of the Rights Plan?
Mr. Chairman, I confirm that a motion to approve the resolution ratifying Air Canada's Shareholder Rights Plan, as described in the management proxy circular related to this meeting, has been made by Kyo Weiss in Tokyo and seconded by Jean-François Raud in France.
Merci. We've now concluded the presentation of the matters to be voted upon about the meeting. The polls will close in about two minutes, and the preliminary results will be announced before we proceed to the question and comment session at the end of the meeting. I would now like to ask Air Canada's President and CEO, Michael Rousseau, to present management's report to shareholders. Over to you, Mike.
Thank you, Vagn, and good morning to everyone. Bonjour a tous. Merci, and thank you for joining us today.
Air Canada's results in 2022 showed a return to stability after COVID-19. Throughout the year, results improved as we transported an increasing number of customers. For the first time in three years, we reported a positive adjusted net income in the fourth quarter of 2022. These results, and those in the first quarter, signal our return to long-term profitability. Our strategy will enable us to succeed in a more active market.
Our results and plans are supported by very strong financial, operating, and commercial positions coming out of the pandemic. Starting with the top line, we recorded passenger revenues of more than 14.2 billion in 2022, more than triple passenger revenues in 2021. Similarly, operating revenues of more than 16.5 billion increased more than 2.5 times versus 2021, and they recovered to about 87% of 2019 operating revenues. On the other side of the equation, our operating expenses of 16.7 billion increased 7.3 billion, or 77% from 2021. This reflects a number of factors, most notably the return of travel worldwide. Our capacity grew 147% year-over-year, and we carried more than 36 million customers, compared to only 13 million in 2021.
For 2022, we operated at 73% of our 2019 capacity. We expect to increase to approximately 90% this year in 2023. Our unit cost, or CASM, decreased to 0.203 from 0.283 in 2021. This partly reflects better aircraft utilization, but is also due to careful cost management, including the benefits of strategic investments we've made to modernize our fleet. Two of our key priorities remain cost control and further deleveraging our balance sheet. This is taking on additional importance as the cost environment has changed since 2019, with higher fuel prices, the added expense of Canada's unique flight crew fatigue rules, the prospect of a stricter APPR regime, and the impact of inflation generally.
We're very mindful of this and working hard to counteract these effects through improvements in efficiency and other cost-saving measures. Overall, we recorded an operating loss of 187 million for the year, that is significantly better than our operating loss of 3 billion in 2021. We reported adjusted EBITDA of nearly 1.5 billion, an improvement of roughly $ 3 billion. Importantly, for both our stability and the ability to fund our future plans, we ended the year with total liquidity of over 9.8 billion. Earlier today, we released our first quarter results for 2023. These results further affirm that the recovery is well on track and the momentum continues to build as our current guidance for 2023 full year adjusted EBITDA suggests. There are many other critical measures of our progress.
Most satisfying has been our ability to recall and hire employees. At year-end, we had nearly 36,000 employees, almost 10,000 more than in December 2021. Another positive sign has been the rebuilding of our network. We relaunched 34 routes across the Atlantic and Pacific in 2022. Within North America, we restored 41 routes by last summer, and we launched new services on four transborder and three domestic routes. To augment our network, we also improved and leveraged the critical network of our Star Alliance partners, as well as a new partner. In 2022, we finalized a new transborder business arrangement with United Airlines to better coordinate our flying, increase frequencies, and offer customers more options. Across the Atlantic, we formed a new partnership with Emirates through a codeshare agreement that gives our customers greater access to the Middle East and to Asia.
To operate our schedule, we have a more modern and fuel-efficient fleet than when the pandemic began. We continued with our narrow-body renewal program, adding 16 Boeing 737s and 31 Airbus A220s between the end of 2019 and 2022. This year we expect another seven wide-body aircraft, including two freighters, to enter the fleet, and our 33rd Airbus A220 entered the fleet earlier this year. We also placed two significant aircraft orders during the year that show our confidence. The more immediate of these is for 30 Airbus A321XLR aircraft with sufficient range to serve all of North America and select transatlantic routes. These are expected to start arriving in 2025 and will open new markets while offering customers added comfort and greater fuel efficiency.
Looking further ahead, we announced a purchase agreement for 30 ES-30 electric hybrid aircraft. Even though these are not projected to arrive till at least late this decade, everyone is excited about these revolutionary new planes now under development by Heart Aerospace . We have been making other critical investments as well. These include investments in new technology, some of it leveraging AI to improve customer interactions such as better mobile technology. At airports, we're trialing biometrics for boarding and lounges. On board, we are expanding the capabilities of our IFEs and improving the Wi-Fi service available to customers in flight. Just as important, we've been investing in technologies that customers do not interact with directly, but provide us the ability to serve them better. During COVID, we completed the transition to our new reservation system.
We're installing a new state-of-the-art phone system to give our call center agents new tools. At Air Canada Vacations, we have consolidated our reservation systems into a single, more efficient engine. More recently, we launched our New Distribution Capability program to make our full inventory more easily available to travel agents and travel buyers. Our progress in 2022 was also accelerated by decisions we made earlier to diversify our revenue sources. One of these was the expansion of Air Canada Cargo with the introduction of designated freighter aircraft to our fleet. During 2022, we increased our fleet from one to five, with more planned by the end of 2025.
Air Canada Cargo generated nearly $ 1.3 billion in revenue in 2022 versus 717 million in 2019. We expect continued growth over the next several years as we build this important and complementary business. Another major contributor is Aeroplan. Membership in our loyalty program hit an all-time high in 2022. We expect to keep adding members who are drawn by the many appealing ways they can earn and redeem points. These include flying on Air Canada, making everyday purchases from partners such as Starbucks and Uber Eats, and most recently Parkland , or by using a co-branded credit card from our financial partners TD, CIBC, Amex, and Chase. Aeroplan exceeded our expectations last year. Gross billings for points sold to third parties were significantly up. We also made solid progress with our strategy of diversifying outside Canada.
In 2022, Aeroplan's international gross billings were 76% higher than in 2019. Air Canada Vacations also performed very strongly in 2022 as holiday traffic returned. In anticipation, ACV took steps to improve response time to customers through increased staffing and back-office automation, including new service tools for travel agents. It has also strengthened its Aeroplan proposition to appeal more to vacation travelers. Taken together, our revenue diversification strategy creates new avenues to grow, gives us a degree of countercyclical protection, and contributes to our overall resiliency. To truly secure our future, the most effective strategy is to continually improve our service levels for all customers so we can earn their repeat business.
While the fact that more than 36 million people chose to fly with Air Canada in 2022 is evidence that we are succeeding, we know that customer loyalty cannot be taken for granted. It must be earned every day. We also know there is a great deal of competition for our customers. I am confident that we will keep raising the customer service bar through our elevated commitment, supported by the competitive strengths I mentioned, such as our network, our fleet, renewal programs, Aeroplan, ACV, our agency partnerships and technology investments. We're taking no chances. This is why we have launched the ECX program to elevate the customer experience. We are already making quick wins, such as improvements in baggage handling, onboard service, and in airports.
ECX is a multi-year program that will reach deeply into our business to yield improvements in all aspects of customer service, as well as making delivering these services easier for our employees. Another element of customer satisfaction is the assurance that the brands they choose to interact with behave responsibly. This sentiment extends to other stakeholders, too, such as investors, employees, governments, and communities. This is another reason why Air Canada has a very robust ESG program. Perhaps the most closely watched of these are the climate action and environmental initiatives. During the year, we made public commitments to sustainable fuels, carbon capture technology, offsets, and electric aircraft. If we are to rapidly make the necessary progress in this area, other industry partners, in particular governments, must be more supportive.
This is especially true with respect to the development of sustainable aviation fuels or SAF, which will require public investments if their production is to reach commercial scale. These fuels are significant and critical bridge to new aircraft and propulsion technologies that we all hope to see emerge by 2050. It is expected alternative fuels will re-represent more than half of the solution to reach net zero by 2050. To provide a foundation for our environmental programs, we have to set clear and ambitious interim and final targets to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. To show our progress and better enable investors to assess our environmental performance, for the first time last year, we issued a TCFD report. Another area where we're active in ESG is through the work of our Air Canada Foundation, which supports sick or otherwise disadvantaged children.
The foundation celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2022. During the year, it distributed $1.6 million and in kind support to 285 Canadian organizations. The final aspect of responsibility is diversity, equity, and inclusion. I am very, very proud of Air Canada's record in this regard. Our commitment to DEI is reflected in the employer awards we keep winning, including 10 consecutive years as one of Montreal's top employers, eight consecutive years as one of Canada's best employers by Forbes, six consecutive years as one of the Achievers Most Engaged Workplaces. We strive to provide a work environment where all employees feel respected and recognized. Diversity opens the doors to the deepest talent pools and ensures our global customer base sees itself reflected in our employees.
As part of this commitment, we forge partnerships with organizations and take part in local, regional, and national activities that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. In addition, we are working hard to adapt to and satisfy society's evolving and justified expectations of an accessible trans-transport system. We are all equally focused on ensuring the integration of Canada's official languages in our corporate culture. In this regard, we established Official Languages Branch in 2022 to oversee the implementation of Air Canada's linguistic action plan, which focuses on governance, communication, and awareness building. This aligns with our business goals, meets our customers' needs, and helps fulfill our obligations as Canada's only airline covered by the Official Languages Act. We also voluntarily registered with the OQLF earlier this year.
We have experienced a very strong start to 2023, evidenced by the first quarter results we released today, showing the positive trends of late 22 are holding, if not getting better. We expect a very busy summer, and we are well prepared. However, air transport is an ecosystem made up of many players. Not only airlines, but airports, government security services, air navigation providers, and others who each have an essential role to fill if the system is to operate smoothly. We have expectations that everyone will perform, and this includes each one being accountable for delivering the services for which they are responsible. As the government embarks on APPR reforms, it should move cautiously and look at the real causes of disruptions and passenger frustrations, as there are many misconceptions.
Nor should it make regulations based on the time-dated effects of a global pandemic and the industry's restart as it emerged from it, or based on severe winter storms. Canada has one of the safest and best airport transport systems in the world. The overwhelming majority of the nearly 50 million people who flew to Canada last year on Air Canada and other carriers did not experience disruptions in their journeys. Of course, we would prefer that there would be no disruptions at all, given the complexity of the air travel ecosystem, we know that is not possible. In cases where travel is significantly disrupted, we proactively take care of our customers. Air Canada paid out CAD 290 million in hotels, meals, and other forms of compensation during 2022. As well, each customer is entitled to have the CTA review their complaint.
We cooperate in this, including by participating in the facilitation or the arbitration process. This is not to say there cannot be improvement, and we strive every day to improve. The recently announced changes to APPR will not make travel better. They overlook the real accountability gaps in the regime and are punitive and only target airlines. Airports, air navigation providers, government security, and others all play an essential role in a person's trip. Yet under APPR, they have no standard to meet, nor are they held accountable. Finally, what is really needed to improve travel for Canadians, is for the federal government to invest in the airport transport system instead of extracting hundreds of millions dollars in rent from airports as it does today. Aside from improving the customer experience, the investment will have a very positive impact to GDP.
As we look beyond the short term, there are ample reasons to be even more excited. There are many trends converging that bode well for the long-term prosperity of your company. These include the ongoing return of tourism and travel, especially in the Pacific market. In Canada, we see favorable demographics as retiring boomers indulge in a deferred passion for travel. There are tremendous opportunities from increased immigration, including an influx of foreign students that will create a demand for visiting friends and relatives traffic, as well as business traffic. Air Canada is ideally positioned to compete and capitalize on these trends. Our finances and our brand are strong. We have the right network designed around a modern fleet and anchored by powerful hubs in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. We possess the tools to deliver excellent customer service and a determination to elevate it further.
We have a winning strategy developed and being executed by a very strong management team.
Lastly, we have the best employees. We have the talent and commitment required to execute our plan. I would like to thank everyone for their hard work this year. They faced some major challenges when our clients returned en masse.
Very welcome. The swift ramp-up in travel last summer tested our abilities and those of our industry partners. Our employees never lost focus on the core task of taking care of our customers while delivering them safely to their destinations. A very special thanks to all of them for their hard work. I also wanna thank our shareholders and our board of directors for their unwavering support during these last very difficult years. I trust that our strong emergence from COVID in 2022 and early 2023 shows that your faith was not misplaced. I look forward to reporting back to you on another successful year at our next annual meeting in 2024.
See you next year, and see you then.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mike. I would now ask Mark to provide the voting outcome based on the preliminary results of the scrutineers' tabulations of today's votes.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Based on the provisional tabulation reported by the scrutineers, the majority of votes during the meeting have been cast in favor of all resolutions dealing with election, appointment, or approval on today's agenda.
Thank you, Mark. I adopt this report and ask that it be filed with the records of the meeting and declare all resolutions to have been passed. We've come to the point where some of you may wish to ask questions or share comments. Mike and I will be happy to take your questions and may ask other members of the board or of Air Canada's executive team to respond to some of them as appropriate. Mark, can you please remind us of the procedure to ask questions or share comments?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To ask a question, click on the message icon on the top of your screen and type your question or comment in English or in French. In order to ensure the proper operation of the meeting, we would ask each shareholder to ask only one question at a time. Only questions of general interest to all shareholders will be addressed. Questions that have already been addressed or that are repetitive will be grouped or deemed as having been already dealt with. We may reword questions or comments. If your question is of a personal nature, or if we are unable to answer for lack of time, an Air Canada representative will be in touch with you after the meeting as long as you provide your contact information. Thank you for your cooperation. Now I turn the meeting back to you, Mr. Chairman.
We'll now give shareholders a brief moment to type in their questions or comments. I would then ask Arielle to please share the questions and comments that were submitted.
Merci, Monsieur le Président.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have received two questions from Mr. Willie Gagnon of the Mouvement d'éducation et de défense des actionnaires. Here are the questions. The Mouvement d'éducation et de défense des actionnaires, MÉDAC, in its exchanges with the corporation, was able to address the issue of languages spoken by directors. This information was provided by the corporation at page seven of this year's circular. We are happy with this. This was the topic of a shareholder's proposal that was made to all companies in our organization's portfolio, and all but one accepted it, which is the exception that confirms the rule. We would hope that this information be broken down for per individual directors as a number of other corporations have done, such as Industrial Alliance, the National Bank, SNC-Lavalin, and others.
We would also have wished that all languages in which directors are fluent, and not only official languages, be included in this information. However, we are happy with Air Canada's openness on the topic as well as the quality of our exchanges with the company. This outside of the formal mechanism of shareholder proposals. The second question: Why is the corporation not holding a face-to-face meeting this year? Public health measures have been lifted a long time ago. The benefits offered by virtual meetings are in no way a bar to holding a face-to-face meeting. Maintaining face-to-face meetings help compensate for the many disadvantages of virtual meetings. In any case, what are the reasons why there is no face-to-face meeting this year? We regret this, of course, and would like that return to normalcy as quickly as possible.
Thank you very much for these questions.
Directors collectively must have a broad range of skills and experience that are complementary in our deliberations. Right now, there is no requirement related to linguistic fluency of directors. This being said, we understand that languages spoken by our directors may be of interest. We therefore provide this information in the aggregate as we do With all information related to diversity on our board. We also believe that this is consistent with the institutional nature of the company and our own linguistic obligations. A number of other public companies have used this approach. We have indicated that two of our directors speak French fluently. This bar has been set very high. This means that they have native or quasi-native fluency. We have also indicated that an additional number of directors have various degrees of fluency in French.
There are seven of us, including myself in that category. In total, nine directors have some fluency in French. In addition, three directors have varying degrees of fluency in at least one other language. I would conclude by saying that regardless of our respective language skills, we are all proud of Air Canada's official language heritage as well as its historic presence in Montreal. We are proud also that Air Canada has opened a new chapter in its language program by voluntarily registering under the Charter of the French language. In answer to your second question, we have chosen to hold our meeting virtually this year, again, for a number of reasons, especially the fact that the virtual format allows a broader cross-section of our shareholders to participate on an equal footing from anywhere while saving on travel costs.
The annual meeting is only one of the opportunities we have to receive your comments. We believe that constant communication and open and constructive dialogue can occur throughout the year. Indeed, we have had opportunities to dialogue with MÉDAC, even absent formal shareholder proposals. Finally, we have found that a number of our peers, including airlines such as United, American, and Lufthansa, have also chosen to hold their meetings virtually. This is a question that we will continue to follow closely. Mr. Chairman, there are no other questions.
We are concluding the question and comment session of this meeting. Mark, I believe we're now in a position to conclude the meeting.
Yes, Mr. Chairman.
Having completed the business of the meeting, I want to thank everyone who made today's event possible, including to ensure our shareholders were able to participate in the meeting online. I also want to thank you all for joining us and participating in or listening to today's meeting, and our shareholders for their continued trust and investment in Air Canada.
I declare that our 2023 annual shareholders meeting is concluded. Thank you and goodbye.