MONTREAL — The second edition of Transat’s charitable auction for SOS Children’s Villages goes live today on Twitter.

Flights to some of Air Transat’s most popular European destinations, departing from seven Canadian cities, will be up for grabs in a live auction.

Web users across Canada will be able to submit bids on 20 flights from Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, St. John’s and Halifax to multiple European cities including Athens, Prague, Budapest, Rome, London and Paris.

All amounts raised during the #TransatAuction will be handed over to SOS Children’s Villages, a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides caring family homes to more than 80,000 orphaned and abandoned children in 134 countries.

“We are delighted to be offering Canadian travellers this second edition of our #TransatAuction,” says Annick Guérard, General Manager, Transat Tours Canada. “There is no other online event like this one, and it’s the perfect opportunity to mix practicality and pleasure, by getting a great deal on one of Transat’s 26 European destinations and supporting a worthy cause at the same time.”

Since 2009, all of Transat’s business units have supported SOS Children’s Villages. “Since the start of our partnership, we’ve changed the lives of more than 25,000 vulnerable children. With Web users’ help, the Transat Auctions contribute to our objective, which is to provide these kids with safe, loving homes, food, education, health care and a future filled with hope. So we hope to have a great turnout on April 23 on Twitter.”

Here are the requirements for users wishing to submit bids in the auction:

1. Have a Twitter account and follow the @AirTransat account.

2. Go to the #TransatAuction microsite, transatauction.ca, to view the list of lots available.

3. After choosing a dream destination, return to the microsite at the scheduled bidding time and submit bids via Twitter.

4. Each bidding period will last 30 minutes and participants will be able to bid live on the microsite or on Twitter over a 12-hour period. The user with the highest bid for each lot will win, and will be contacted via Twitter.

Last December, the first edition of the #TransatAuction, which was then called #SunAuction, attracted more than 82,000 visitors and generated some 47,300 bids during the 12-hour live auction. In total, close to $30,000 was raised in support of SOS Children’s Villages.

Follow the auction on Twitter by searching for the hashtag #TransatAuction, or by visiting the @AirTransat Twitter account.