Air Transat will resume services between Canada and the UK on September 15, operating first to London and then re-introducing its Manchester and Glasgow routes later in the year.
The airline is also bringing back its Star Rewards incentives programme to support the return to service and is offering agents making bookings between August 16 and September 13 the chance to earn £10 or £20 per booking.
Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast, commercial director for the UK & Ireland Adrian Keating said: “I’m delighted to say that we’re going to start our services back to UK from 15th September. It’s been a really tough six months for the Transat family, with our planes being on the ground permanently over that period.
“We fly back to the UK from the 15th September, starting with London Gatwick, and then we’ll resume operations, hopefully, from Glasgow and Manchester towards the end of the year. So I’m really looking forward to that.”
He confirmed the airline’s new Airbus A321 Neo long range aircraft would be used on the London Gatwick route.
“They’re brand new into our fleet. And we’re lucky enough to be able to bring them back to the London route, flying with those immediately from the restart, and what we’d like to do is develop that across the whole of the network,” said Keating.
“As with most airlines, we’ve had to reassess our fleet and network strategy as we come out of the pandemic and we’ve retired some of our older aircraft. We’re delighted that we’ve been able to continuously bring in some of the Airbus A321 neos during the pandemic so that as we come out, we’ve actually got a more efficient fleet, which is great for us as an airline, but it’s also great from the passenger perspective as well.”
Keating said this was also a key selling point for the trade.
“It’s great from an agent perspective when selling us because we’ve got a great brand-new plane to sell,” he said, explaining that the aircraft are single-aisle long-haul specialists developed with a focus on sustainability.
“The LR in the Airbus A321 Neo LR stands for long range. But what it essentially enables us to do is fly across the Atlantic; for a longer range with a smaller aircraft,” he added. “The engines are bigger, but they’re actually more efficient than some of the older aircraft, which you’ll have seen with some of the legacy carriers retiring some of the bigger 747s and other aircraft with older engines.
“From a technology perspective, and a range perspective, this is a much more advanced aircraft. So from a customer point of view, hopefully they’ll find it really comfortable. And they will also be happy and content that it’s a more fuel-efficient aircraft as well.”
Keating said he is keen to get agents to support the trans-Atlantic restart so is putting an incentive in place to reward anyone who makes a booking.
“We’ve all had a tough time over the last few months and as we come out of the pandemic, I’d like to try and put something into the marketplace that is a little bit more positive than we’ve seen over recent months, both with us as a company, but as an industry as a whole,” he said.
“So we’re going to relaunch our Star Rewards agent incentive platform, and we’re going to use a four week booking period. So from the 16th August until 13th September, if you book a flight with Air Transat for your customers, we will reward you with between £10 and £20 per return booking and you can redeem that for glamping weekends, GHD hair irons, Red Letter days, or an Apple iPhone or such like.
“There is a whole range of prizes that you can redeem those vouchers for. So we’re delighted to announce that alongside our restart and hopefully we’ll get some bookings in.”
Keating also flagged Air Transat’s new ‘Direct Connect’ agent booking portal, which went live at the back end of last year “but never really got any traction” because of the pandemic.
“It means that we’ve now got a portal that will allow agents to buy inventory directly from us. And why would the agent want to do that?” he said.
“One reason is they’ll get price parity with our web fares. A second key unique selling point is that it is also bookable outside GDS. So typically in the GDS, you can book 11 months in advance; with the new booking portal, you can book 18 months out.
“You’ll also get commission directly from the airline and you’ll be able to book ancillary items seamlessly as well, which can’t be done currently with the way that was set up in the GDS.”