The A321LR essential to Air Transat relaunch
Air Transat plans to resume flights from July 23 if travel restrictions are lifted. The A321LR will be essential for its revival and here is why:
Air Transat first flight to resume will be its very popular Montreal-Paris route. The company will start with A330-200s on a daily frequency, then two other flights will be added in August and September. The second link from Montreal will be Athens with a frequency of two flights per week with A330-200
Air Transat will then add the following six destinations:
• Lisbon on July 28
• Lyon on July 28
• Marseille on July 29
• Toulouse on July 30
• Nantes on July 31
• Bordeaux on August 2
Air Transat will use A321LRs on those six destination with a frequency of two flights per week. On its booking site, Transat has an occupancy rate that varies from 60% to 75% for these first flights. With only 199 seats, the A321LR is much easier to fill than the A330-200, which has 332. Air Transat thus avoids flying planes with more than 135 empty seats.
Last week, a fourth A321LR joined the Air Transat fleet. The four aircraft will therefore be very busy from the first days of the revival of the carrier. In addition, the company will soon receive its fifth A321LR and a sixth by September. These additional aircraft will increase the frequency or add new destinations. The A321LR offers Air Transat great flexibility in this period of great uncertainty and low demand. Personally, I would say that its biggest flaw is that there are not enough of them in service.
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