Air Transat

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Air Transat
IATA
TS
ICAO
TSC
Callsign
TRANSAT
Founded1986
HubsMontréal-Trudeau Int'l Airport
Toronto Pearson Int'l Airport
Focus citiesVancouver International Airport
Calgary International Airport
Québec/Jean Lesage Int'l Airport
Fleet size16
Destinations90
Parent companyTransat A.T. Inc.
HeadquartersMontreal, Quebec
Key peopleJean-Marc Eustache (Chairman & CEO), François Laurin(CFO)
Website: http://www.airtransat.com

Air Transat A.T. Inc. 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 base is Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, with hubs at Toronto Pearson International Airport and Vancouver International Airport. The airline also focuses operations at Calgary International Airport and Québec/Jean Lesage International Airport[1].

Contents

[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 (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, 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[1].

[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.[3] The aircraft safely landed at Lajes Air Base, on the island of Terceira. The aircraft was evacuated in 90 seconds. All 306 passengers on board survived. The cause of the fuel loss was an incompatible component - designed for a different type of aircraft - installed in 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]
Image:AirTransatAmsterdam.jpg
An Air Transat A330 arrives at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

[edit] Services

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.

Image:TSStransat old.gif
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.

[edit] New routes Europe

New Routes (as of August 22, 2007)
Route Start Date End Date Equipment
Montreal- Mulhouse-Basel May 29, 2008 October 9, 2008 Airbus A310
Toronto- Mulhouse-Basel May 29, 2008 October 9, 2008 Airbus A310
Montreal- Dublin May 7, 2008 October 15, 2008 Airbus A310
Vancouver- Paris May 29, 2008 October 2, 2008 Airbus A330-200
Calgary- Paris May 29, 2008 October 2, 2008 Airbus A330-200
Toronto- Brussels May 13, 2008 October 28, 2008 Airbus A310
Fredericton- London May 6, 2008 October 28, 2008 Airbus A310

[edit] Fleet

The Air Transat fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of December 2007) [1] :

Fleet
Aircraft Total Passengers Routes Notes
Airbus A310-300 12 259 Atlantic & South America Exit from service 2012
Airbus A330-200 3 363 Atlantic & South America Reconfigured cabin Mid-2008
Airbus A330-300 1 362 Atlantic & South America

Air Transat, has its eye on the Airbus A350 XWB and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Air Transat chief executive officer Allen Graham said in an interview November 14, 2007. He expects to choose by late 2008 or early 2009, with plans to buy the planes from Airbus or Boeing and also added that they might enter service in 2013. [1]

As of December 2007, Air Transat fleet average age is 15.1 years old[5].

Image:AirTransatOld.JPG
Air Transat 1980s Logo

[edit] Previously operated

[edit] External links

[edit] References


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fr:Air Transat id:Air Transat he:אייר טראנסט nl:Air Transat ja:エア・トランザット pl:Air Transat pt:Air Transat ro:Air Transat sr:Ер Трансат fi:Air Transat zh:越洋航空

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