TORONTO — After announcing details of its new 2017 Europe and Guided Tours brochures last week, Transat hosted an industry reception in Toronto to highlight the changes in its Europe program from 2016, as well as Air Transat’s plans to adopt interline agreements in the near future.
Denise Heffron, VP National Sales & Commercial, told media and industry partners that the company has recently gone through a process she refers to as “refinement.” After working with analysts for three months during which Transat evaluated its valued relationships, Transat found that there’s room for improvement in the way it sells travel.
“We wanted to make sure that we’re maximizing what we’re doing so that we can be better,” she said. “We asked ourselves, ‘Are we working with the right partners at the right time with the right product?’ You’ll find that we’re going to be working more closely with you from now in, particularly with regard to marketing.”
Part of this self-evaluation included Transat’s recent streamlining of brands. Having once included brands like TMR, Nolitours and Transat Discoveries, the company finally “made the leap” and is now utilizing only the Transat and Air Transat brands.
“Through our research, we found that the greatest equity we have is in the Air Transat brand, followed by Transat,” she said.
Dan Prior, Rita Polegri, Denise Heffron
Gilles Ringwald, which joined Air Transat last month as its new Commercial Vice-President, confirmed that the company will soon be delving into the business of interlining, a common practice for many airlines. Air Transat, which didn’t have the need to partner with other airlines before, is now taking measures to expand its network and increase its frequencies through new interline agreements in order to stay competitive.
With these agreements in place, Air Transat will be able to offer direct flights from major Canadian cities to leisure destinations in Europe, which will provide greater flexibility of schedules and frequencies and expand the number of destinations it offers. For example, Air Transat currently does not fly to Athens from Montreal or Toronto, but “in the future we can with interline partners,” said Ringwald.
Ringwald confirmed that interlining will begin in 2017 and will be firmly in place by November 2017.
In 2016, Air Transat offered direct flights to 27 destinations in 13 countries, from five Canadian cities. It had a capacity of 862,638 seats, up 7% compared to 2015. In 2017, Air Transat will offer increased frequency on several routes, including: Montreal-Paris (14 flights/week); Montreal-Marseille (5 flights/week); Montreal-Barcelona (5 flights/week); Montreal-Lisbon (4 flights/week); Montreal-Athens (3 flights/week); Toronto-Athens (3 flights/week); Montreal-Venice (3 flights/week); Montreal-Madrid (2 flights/week); Montreal-Malaga (2 flights/week); Montreal-Prague (2 flights/week), and Toronto-Zagreb (2 flights/week).
For more information on Transat’s Europe 2017 program, click here.
