MONTREAL – Air Transat will make its first commercial flights Thursday evening, 112 days after its planes were grounded due to the COVID-19 crisis.
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To mark this date, the Quebec air carrier has changed its flight cancellation policy. It still doesn’t reimburse customers who want to cancel a trip, but the 24-month travel credits it offers no longer have expiration dates.
On the Air Transat website, it is specified that a traveler can now change their travel, accommodation or destination dates – and even all three – free of charge up to 24 hours before departure. It is also possible to postpone a trip at any time within 12 months of the original return trip date, it was clarified.
To end four months of inactivity, Air Transat scheduled Thursday three international flights (Montreal-Toulouse, Montreal-Paris and Toronto-London) and three domestic flights (Montreal-Toronto, Toronto-Montreal and Toronto-Vancouver).
Over the next 10 days, the carrier will resume its entire reduced summer program. It offers 24 routes and 20 destinations, it was said Thursday.
Air Transat has also just taken delivery in July of three new Airbus A321neoLRs, as part of its fleet transformation program.
“July 23 is and will remain a very special day in Transat’s history. We are gradually resuming our aviation activities after 112 days of shutdown, ”said Annick Guérard, Chief Operating Officer of Transat, referring to“ the feverishness in the air ”.
“The entire Transat team, starting with our flight crew on duty, is very happy to resume service and to offer our passengers an experience that has been redesigned and adapted to the context. The sky is quietly clearing up and that’s encouraging, but that doesn’t mean the crisis caused by COVID-19 is over, ”she added.
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