35 Years Of Operations: A Brief History Of Air Transat
Air Transat is the third-largest Canadian Airline after Air Canada and WestJet.
Photo: Air Transat
Today Monday, the 14th of November, marks the 35th anniversary of Canadian carrier Air Transat commencing operations in 1987.
Founded by François Legault with other business partners such as Jean-Marc Eustache, Philippe Sureau, Lina de Cesare, Yvon Lecavalier, and Pierre Ménard in 1986, Air Transat is a Canadian leisure airline.
Montreal–Trudeau International Airport (YUL)-based Air Transat's first revenue flight took place on November 14, 1987, with a flight between Montreal and Acapulco International Airport (ACA) in Mexico. Unlike Air Canada and WestJet, Air Transat only operates charter flights to vacation destinations.
Read more: Erroll Boyd: The First Canadian To Fly From Canada To England
During the winter, this consisted of flights south from the frozen north to sunny destinations in Central America and the Caribbean. During the summer months, the focus shifted to flights between Canada and various destinations in Europe.
Following years of successful operations as well as being named one of the best Canadian companies to work for in 2019, the company that owns Air Transat announced that it was in talks with flag carrier Air Canada. The latter offered to buy Air Transat for CUSD 13 a share before being gazumped by Montreal property developer Groupe Mach who offered to pay CUSD 14 per share.
On June 27, 2019, the board of Air Transat accepted an all-cash bid of CUSD 520 million (USUSD 392 million) from the national airline. Despite accepting the offer, the sale still depended on two-thirds of the company's shareholders approving it. Some prominent investors and financial analysts thought Air Canada's proposal was well below actual market value. Air Transat also needed Canadian government approval for the sale to go through. At the time, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) stated, "regulatory approvals are no sure thing," and indeed, it proved to be right.
COVID-19 killed the sale of Air Transat to Air CanadaBy August 12, 2019, Air Canada had upped its offer to CUSD 18 per share from CUSD 13 per share, an increase of 40%, valuing the airline at CUSD 720 million (USDUSD 544). On August 23, 2019, 95% of Air Transat's shareholders approved the sale of the airline to Air Canada.
Photo: Air Transat
As the sale process was being completed, everything had to stop due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating impact on air travel. Buy July 2020 Air Transat's share price had dropped to CUSD 5.16 a share, way lower than what Air Canada had offered to pay.
The two parties revised their deal and agreed on a sale price of CUSD 5.00 per share. The new agreement now valued Air Transat as being worth CUSD 180 million. On April 2, 2021, the deal was scrapped following a failure to secure European Commission approval.
Air Transat todayNow with the sale in the rearview mirror, Air Transat was named the World's Best Leisure Airline at the 2021 Skytrax World Airline Awards. Today Air Transat flies to 60 destinations in 25 countries in the Americas and Europe. Air Transat also flies domestically within Canada, offering connections to cities worldwide.
Photo: Airbus
According to the aviation data and statistics website, ch-aviation, Air Transat's current fleet comprises the following aircraft:
- 7 x Airbus A321-200s
- 12 x Airbus A321-200LRs
- 11 x Airbus A330-200s
- 1 x Airbus A330-300
- 1 x Boeing 737-800
As far as future deliveries are concerned, Air Transat is waiting for five Airbus A321-200LRs and three Airbus A321-200XLRs, including an option for an additional fourth unit. There may also be others on order, but they are not listed by ch-aviation.
Джерело інформації: Simple Flying