Transat loses C$29m in fiscal Q2, anticipates strong summer season

The parent of Canadian carrier Air Transat lost C$29.2m ($21.9m) during its fiscal Q2 of 2023 as demand for its “primary niche” of leisure travel remained steady. For comparison, Montreal-based Transat AT lost C$98.3m during the same three months ending 30 April of last year. The company reported its Q2 results on 8 June, saying it generated C$870m in revenue during the period. That is up from $358m in the same period last year, during which Air Transat had cancelled nearly 30% of its scheduled flights amid emergence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Transat says it executed “continuous improvement in its operational efficiency throughout the quarter”, adding that a “high volume of activity is driving prices up”. Air Transat has already sold 60% of its anticipated capacity in the upcoming Northern Hemisphere summer travel season. “Air Transat will deploy for the summer a capacity representing 89% of its 2019 level, with Europe comprising 80% of the activity, leveraging the most-profitable routes for Transat,” says Transat CE Annick Guerard. The airline’s load factor for summer 2023 remains 2.6 percentage points lower than in summer 2019, but Air Transat anticipates that will be offset by strong demand and higher ticket prices. Like many operators of Airbus A320neo-family aircraft powered by Pratt & Whitney PW1100G engines, Air Transat has been feeling the effect of extended maintenance lead times and shortages of parts and spare engines. “We do feel the impact with the Pratt engines,” Guerard says. “We are putting in place a series of actions to protect our operation this summer and next winter, like leasing additional engines and planning for additional backups within the operation.”<br/>