Air Canada completes $800 million substantial issuer bid

Further to Air Canada’s last update (Sept.

Official response and confirmed impact

25) indicating its plans to buy back $800M in shares, returning share count to pre-COVID levels, the national carrier reports in its release today (Sep.

28) that it has taken up and paid for 27,586,206 of its Class A variable voting shares and Class B voting shares (collectively, the "shares") at a price of $29.00 per share under its $800 million substantial issuer bid (the "offer") to purchase shares for cancellation.

The shares bought under the offer represent about 9.8 per cent of the total number of Air Canada's outstanding shares as of Sept.

24, 2026, before giving effect to the offer. After the offer, about 252.7 million shares will remain outstanding.

According to Air Canada, the completion of the offer is an important milestone in the airline's disciplined execution of its capital allocation framework and priorities, allowing it to complete the return of its share count to below pre-pandemic levels.

Incident background

Air Canada shared that the share purchase was funded with part of the proceeds from the minority equity investment in Aeroplan by funds managed by Blackstone and La Caisse, together with other leading Canadian institutions.