MONTREAL – Cargojet saw domestic shipments spike in its latest quarter even as overseas business fell amid the global trade rejig prompted by U.S. tariffs, reflecting a “tale of two cities” within the air freight company, said chief executive Pauline Dhillon.
She said Canadian consumers enjoyed an “active” winter holiday season and retailers continued to embrace e-commerce, boosting Cargojet’s core overnight shipping business.
“Increasingly, retailers are choosing e-commerce channels to optimize inventories and to best satisfy customer needs. The speed of delivery is critical to ensuring ongoing customer satisfaction,” said Dhillon, who began to helm the firm solo rather than as co-CEO starting in January.
Cargojet’s charter flights on international routes took a hit as e-commerce traffic between China and the United States continued to drop sharply amid trade tensions between the two countries.
E-commerce sales to the U.S. from China fell 28 per cent in 2025 — and even more steeply in the fourth quarter — the first decline since 2022, according to a Chinese government report cited by Dhillon.
“While the domestic network remained robust, long-haul transatlantic and transpacific lanes continued to be impacted by geopolitical uncertainty,” Dhillon said.
Earlier this year, Cargojet and a major Chinese partner agreed to suspend service due to “ongoing political and tariff challenges,” she said.
Cargojet’s business hinges on air delivery of e-commerce goods on its fleet of 41 planes.
The company deploys them on its domestic network, on ad hoc charter flights and on more regular charter routes for clients such as DHL, which leases the aircraft, crews, maintenance and insurance to fly freight around the globe.
Those planes saw an uptick in activity after an MD-11 wide-body freighter crashed in Kentucky in early November, prompting authorities to ground the aging aircraft. Since then, some Cargojet partners have relied more heavily on the 25-year-old company for their shipping needs, Dhillon said.
“This is an opportunity which came out of a very unfortunate incident,” said chairman and founder Ajay Virmani. “We do not take this opportunity as taking advantage or gouging the customers.”
As tariffs hamper Canadian trade with the U.S., Cargojet has looked farther afield, taking on a new partner for scheduled charter flights operating five days per week with destinations in the Caribbean and Central and South America.
In October, the company established scheduled air cargo service between Canada and Belgium’s Liège Airport, a major European freight hub, as the federal government looks to strengthen transatlantic trade links.
A jump in demand for Canadian seafood helped boost Europe-bound trips, Dhillon added.
On Tuesday evening, Cargojet reported net earnings fell 63 per cent year-over-year to $26.6 million in its fourth quarter, while revenues decreased three per cent to $284.7 million.
It attributed the profit plunge to an extra $37.7 million in “net finance costs and other gains and losses.”
Despite that hit, RBC Dominion Securities analyst Walter Spracklin called the quarter “very impressive,” pointing in particular to a 17 per cent year-over-year jump in domestic revenue.
On an adjusted basis, earnings slid 14 per cent to $1.47 per share from $1.71 a year earlier, but notched higher than analysts’ expectations of $1.04 per share, according to financial markets firm LSEG Data & Analytics.
For the full year, profits dropped 26 per cent to $80.2 million amid tariff turmoil while total revues dipped less than one per cent to $992.7 million.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 25, 2026.
Companies in this story: (TSX:CJT)
