Air Transat

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Air Transat

IATA TS	ICAO TSC	Callsign Transat
Founded		1986
Hubs		Montréal-Trudeau Int'l Airport Toronto Pearson Int'l Airport Vancouver International Airport
Focus cities / secondary hubs		Halifax International Airport Québec/Jean Lesage Int'l Airport
Fleet size		15
Destinations		75
Parent company		Transat A.T. Inc.
Headquarters		Montreal, Quebec
Key people		Jean-Marc Eustache (Chairman & CEO), François Laurin(CFO)
Website: http://www.airtransat.com

Air Transat is an airline based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, operating scheduled and charter flights and serving 90 destinations in 25 countries. The airline is owned and operated by Transat A.T. During the summer season its main destinations are Europe and domestic flights within Canada and in the winter season the Caribbean, Mexico, USA and South America. It is the designated carrier between Canada and Cuba. Its main bases are Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport, and Vancouver International Airport, with hubs at Halifax International Airport and Québec/Jean Lesage International Airport.

1 History
2 Incidents and accidents
3 Services
4 Fleet
5 See also
6 External links
7 References

[edit] History

Air Transat was founded by former Quebecair employees in December 1986 as an off-shoot of Trafic Voyages. It made its inaugural flight on November 14, 1987, travelling from Montreal to Acapulco. Six years later, Air Transat assumed defunct Nationair's maintenance base and aircraft. Today, the company books 2.5 million passengers a year. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transat A.T. Inc. Separate companies (Air Transat Holidays, Nolitours, Jonview Canada) operate under the banner of TDC (Transat Distribution Canada) which specialize in organizing, marketing, and distributing vacation travel and packages. The organization includes tour operators and retail travel outlets based in Canada and France. Today Air Transat is one of Canada's largest airlines.

On 14 July 2006, Air Transat announced that it had signed an agreement to acquire British tour operator The Airline Seat Company for £20.4 million (approximately C$42.8 million). Between 1995 and 2006 The Airline Seat Company established a large proportion of its business under the banner of Canadian Affair, a tour operator and agent for charter flights between the UK and Canada.

An Air Transat A310 taking off from Toronto Pearson Airport in the new 2006 livery.

[edit] Incidents and accidents

On August 24, 2001, Air Transat Flight 236, en route from Toronto to Lisbon with 306 crew and passengers, had to make an emergency landing in the Azores without engine power after running out of fuel over the Atlantic ocean. The aircraft safely landed at Lajes Air Base, on the island of Terceira. The aircraft was evacuated in 90 seconds. None of the 306 passengers and crew were seriously injured in the incident. The cause of the fuel loss was an incompatible component - designed for a different type of aircraft - installed the plane's fuel system by an Air Transat maintenance worker. It was later found that there was a ruptured fuel line that occurred and nobody knew that this would happen. As a result, Air Transat took passengers to Lisbon on an a Lockheed L-1011 Tristar and the A330 had new fuel tank monitoring systems.

On March 6, 2005, on an Air Transat flight en route from Cuba to Quebec City, using an Airbus A310-300 with 9 crew and 261 passengers on board, most of the rudder separated during the cruise. The crew became aware of the problem and returned to Varadero, Cuba, where they made a safe landing. The reason for the rudder structural failure is still under investigation. It has been established that no unusual rudder inputs had been used by the crew during the flight, they were not manipulating the rudder when it failed and there was no obvious fault in the rudder or yaw-damper system (ref: Flight International, July 2005).

An Air Transat A330 departs Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

[edit] Services

Main article: Air Transat destinations

Air Transat specializes in charter flights from several Canadian and European cities to vacation destinations, mainly in the south during the winter months and in Europe during the summer. It also operates scheduled services as follows (as of July 2006).

It inaugurated nonstop service Montreal-Madrid in May 2006. It now operates a weekly flight departing Montreal on Monday and Madrid on Tuesday. In June 2006 it will add a 2nd weekly flight departing Montreal on Friday and Madrid on Saturday. Both frequencies will use an Airbus A310-300 and the Mon/Tue rotation originates and terminates in Toronto.

In May 2007, Air Transat will start service from Montreal to Barcelona, Valencia and Malaga, Spain, and will also start service from Montreal and Toronto to Vienna, Austria.

The logo used for Air Transat in the early and mid 90's. It was phased out in late 2005 with the intoduction of the new logo. "Canada's No.1 Holiday Airline" did not appear on the aircraft livery.