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'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].

Contents

History

Incidents and accidents

Services

New routes

Fleet

Previously operated

External links

References

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, after Air Canada, Air Canada Jazz and WestJet.
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).^[2] 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.
Air Transat has 2,667 employees.

An Air Transat A310 landing at Toronto Pearson Airport in the new 2006 livery.

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.^[3] The aircraft safely landed at Lajes Air Base, on the island of Terceira. The aircraft was evacuated in 90 seconds. Thanks to the excellent skills of Captain Robert Piche, the 306 passenger airplane glided safety without any serious injuries. 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 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.^[4]

An Air Transat A330 arrives at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

Services

Main articles: Air Transat destinations

Air Transat specializes in charter flights from several Canadian cities to vacation destinations, mainly in the south during the winter months and in Europe during the summer.

The logo used for Air Transat in the early and mid 1990s. It was phased out in late 2005 with the introduction of the new logo. "Canada's No.1 Holiday Airline" did not appear on the aircraft livery.

New routes

'New Routes (as of August 22, 2007)'

Route	Start Date	End Date	Equipment
Montreal- Mulhouse-Basel	May 29, 2008		Airbus A310
Montreal- Dublin	May 7, 2008		Airbus A310

Fleet

The Air Transat fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of March 2007) :

★ 12 Airbus A310-300

★ 3 Airbus A330-200

★ 1 Airbus A330-300
As of June 2007, Air Transat fleet average age is 14.7 years old^[5].

Air Transat 1980s Logo

Previously operated

★ Airbus A320

★ Boeing 727

★ Boeing 737

★ Boeing 757

★ Lockheed L-1011 TriStar

External links

★ Official Site

★ Air Transat Fleet Detail

★ Air Transat Virtual Airlines - [http://www.freewebs.com/airtransatv

References

1. Directory: World Airlines
2. Transat A.T. Inc. acquires British tour operator Canadian Affair. Canada Newswire, 14 Jul 2006. Retrieved 5 Jan 2007.
3. A330 'glider' drama facts revealed. Flight International, 26 Oct 2004. Retrieved 5 Jan 2007.
4. Weakest points. Flight International, 19 Jul 2005. Retrieved 5 Jan 2007.
5. Air Transat Fleet Age