Due to the many challenges facing the industry, Air Transat says it will not be operating its usual winter schedule from Western Canada to southern and US destinations for 2020-2021. Domestic flights will operate from Vancouver to Toronto and Montreal. Some flights to Europe will be available using these connectors, though details are not yet available. The gateways impacted are Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Victoria.

All individual ABC, ITC and FIT bookings for travel between November 01, 2020 and April 30, 2021 from the listed gateways will be automatically cancelled. The only exceptions will be domestic flights originating in Vancouver, and flights to Europe that originate in Vancouver and connect in Montreal or Toronto. Land only reservations will not be cancelled.

Clients will receive a refund “to the form of payment on file equal to the amount paid to Transat.”

Group bookings are similarly impacted, but travel consultants with group files including passengers travelling from gateways in western Canada and gateways still operating will be contacted by a Transat group agent.

Air Canada acquisition

The Air Canada acquisition, Christophe Hennebelle Vice-President, Human Resources and Corporate Affairs, told Travel Industry Today, has not been postponed (any further). What has been postponed is the outside date provided for in the Arrangement Agreement – by another month – until August 27.

Had we not done it, Hennebelle said in an email, it would have meant that the transaction was over. The European Union’s decision is expected between September 30 and November 19, and he noted that Transat had said earlier that it expected the transaction to close during the fourth quarter of the 2020 calendar year, if the required approvals are obtained and the conditions are met.

Transat’s Q2 disclosure release stated, “Under the arrangement agreement, the deadline for obtaining the regulatory approvals cannot be extended beyond December 27, 2020. This date, initially set for June 27, 2020 may be deferred, to the extent that the regulatory approvals are not obtained, for three one-month periods upon notification by one of the parties, and subsequently for three additional one-month periods under certain conditions. The Corporation has informed Air Canada of its decision to activate the first one-month period, which defers, for now, the June 27 deadline to July 27, 2020.”