Though still reporting a $56.6-million loss in its latest quarter, Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says the company is on an upswing and is headed for a return to profitability. The 2023 Q1 result compares to a loss of $114.3 million a year earlier as its revenue more than tripled.

Revenue for the Montreal-based travel company totalled $667.5 million, up from $202.4 million a year earlier when nearly 30% of Transat’s scheduled flights had to be scrubbed as a result of booking cancellations following the emergence of the Omicron variant.

“The momentum from the end of 2022 continues, confirming our financial scenarios,” said Guérard. “Across all programs, combining European and South destinations, Transat deployed capacity comparable to that of 2019.”

She added that though load factors were slightly lower, the shortfall was largely offset by higher prices with yield increasing by more than 20% compared with the first quarter of 2019.

The company is also seeing record high customer deposits and recorded a “satisfactory” 84.5% load factor in Q1.

“These results are especially encouraging since the first quarter, which falls in the shoulder period, is usually the lowest of the year,” she continued. “Resilient demand for travel is supporting prices and helps us deal with the pressure on operating costs. The context is therefore challenging but remains favourable to recovery in travel and Transat’s relaunch.”

2023 Outlook

Transat says that while it is too early to have a complete picture for the summer, the winter trends seem to be continuing into summer 2023 and that the combination of demand and higher prices will allow it to cope with higher costs.

For the full fiscal year 2023, Transat says it expects to deploy capacity equivalent to 90% of the 2019 level.