Painting the Town Red - How Air Transat Fits with Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge

Having looked like a certainty, and then not, by the end of June the acquisition of Air Transat by Air Canada looked like it was back on again. While the Board of Air Transat agreed to the deal to purchase the airline, worth $520 million, there are still a number of regulatory hurdles to pass.

While Air Canada already has a low-cost leisure brand in Air Canada Rouge, it is right to ask what Air Transat brings, especially when Air Canada is saying that it will preserve the Air Transat brand. While there is some overlap – 35 routes in July 2019 – there are plenty of routes where the two brands don’t coincide and creating new opportunities for Air Canada to have a low fare offering aimed at leisure travellers. While Air Canada Rouge has network strength in Europe and the Caribbean, the focus of the Air Transat network is stronger in Canada as well as in the US and Latin America. It too has a significant operation to the Caribbean but many of the destinations differ.

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