Air_Transat

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Air Transat

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.

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). 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.

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 due to fuel starvation over the Atlantic Ocean. 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. Afterwards, an investigation revealed that the cause of the accident was a fuel leak in the number two engine which was caused by an incorrect part installed in the hydraulics system by Air Transat maintenance staff. The part did not maintain adequate clearance between the hydraulic lines and the fuel line, allowing vibration in the hydraulic lines to degrade the fuel line and cause the leak.

On March 6, 2005, on an Air Transat Flight 961 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.

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.

New routes

New Routes (as of July 21, 2008)
Route	Start Date	Equipment
Vancouver - Santa Clara	December 24	Airbus 310
Vancouver - Madrid	Summer 2009	Airbus 330
Vancouver - Barcelona	Summer 2009	Airbus 330
Montreal - Venice	Summer 2009	Airbus 310
Toronto - Rome	Summer 2009	Airbus 310
Toronto - Venice	Summer 2009	Airbus 310
Montreal - Beirut - Tehran	Summer 2009 (waiting for gov't approval)	unknown
Toronto - Milan	Summer 2009	Airbus 310

Fleet

The Air Transat fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of September 2008) :

Fleet
Aircraft	Total	Passengers (Club/Economy)	Routes	Notes
Airbus A310-300	14	249 (20/229)	Atlantic & South America	Exit from service 2013
Airbus A330-200	3	342 (21/321)	Atlantic & South America
Airbus A330-300	1	342 (21/321)	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.

As of 19 September 2008, Air Transat fleet average age is 15.9 years old.

Previously operated

Trivia

At least one Air Transat plane was in the background at JFK in the movie The Terminal. However, Air Transat does not service New York-JFK Airport. The reason is that part of the movie was shot at Montréal-Mirabel International Airport, which was served by Air Transat.