The Globe and Mail reports in its Thursday edition that Air Canada shares took flight Wednesday after it announced the sale of a quarter of its Aeroplan loyalty program to Blackstone and a trio of Canadian pension funds for $2.5-billion in a bid to bolster its balance sheet. A Canadian Press dispatch to The Globe says the carrier's stock price closed at $30.61, up $3.34 in Toronto -- its highest point since early 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic brought Air Canada's stock crashing from heights that topped $50 in January, 2020. The sale marks a windfall for the Montreal-based company just as high jet-fuel prices caused by the Middle East war deliver a half-billion-dollar hit to its earnings this year. The buyers of the 25-per-cent Aeroplan stake are led by private equity giant Blackstone and the Caisse pension fund. The Public Sector Pension Investment Board and the British Columbia Investment Management Corp. are also investors. Air Canada says it will maintain full control of day-to-day operations at the travel rewards program, which it repurchased in 2019 for less than $500-million. "The announced transaction is very positive versus the scenarios we contemplated," TD Cowen analyst Tom Fitzgerald said in a note.