Yahoo Finance Air Transat relaunches 'significant number of routes' for summer
Air Transat (ATZ.TO) unveiled its summer schedule on Monday, relaunching "a significant" number of routes to Europe and the United States as COVID-19 restrictions ease and demand ramps up.
The Montreal-based airline and tour operator said it is seeing high demand for travel ahead of the busy summer season.
"The outlook for the summer season is favourable, and our abundant air offering, which includes the vast majority of our pre-pandemic destinations as well as exciting new routes, is enabling us to respond to the significant pent-up demand," Transat's chief sales and marketing officer Joseph Adamo said in a statement.
"This surge in demand has also allowed us to increase capacity on certain key routes between now and the end of the winter season."
Transat said it will gradually resume flights to 25 European destinations, including the six it currently flies to, starting in April. The airline will fly to 16 destinations from Montreal, 15 from Toronto and two from Quebec City.
The airline will also expand its service to the U.S., flying to California for the first time since the carrier launched. Transat also said it will begin operating flights to from Montreal to Fort Lauderdale and Miami, Toronto to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, and Quebec City to Fort Lauderdale on a year-round basis given "the unfaltering popularity of Florida."
Transat is not the only airline launching a summer schedule more in line with what it operated before the pandemic hit. Air Canada (AC.TO) unveiled last month that it will expand its summer schedule, relaunching 34 international routes, including some that have been suspended since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
The surge in travel demand comes amid an easing of COVID-19 travel restrictions around the world.
The federal government eased travel rules for fully vaccinated international travellers on Feb. 28, allowing travellers to provide a rapid antigen test instead of a PCR test before returning to Canada.
However, the airline industry says the government can do more when it comes to the easing of restrictions. The National Airline Council of Canada (NACC), which represents Air Canada, WestJet, Transat and Jazz Aviation, has urged the federal government to produce a science-based plan detailing a return to safe travel that includes an April 1 removal of pre-departure tests for fully vaccinated travellers.
Alicja Siekierska is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow her on Twitter @alicjawithaj.
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