Air Transat Leases Transavia France 737’s For Sun Destination Capacity

Transat A.T. Inc. has signed an agreement for the seasonal leasing of Boeing B737-800 narrow-body aircraft that will be supplied in winter by Transavia France, the Air France/KLM Group's French leisure airline. The 5 year pact is for 4 planes for the winter of 2015, 5 for 2016, 6 for 2017, 7 for 2018 and 8 for 2019. The aircraft, which will be operated by TS, will fly to Mexico and the Caribbean.

This agreement follows from Transat's already expressed decision to internalize narrow-body medium-haul operations, for which it has relied on a 3rd partners since 2003, and to adopt a so-called "accordion fleet" strategy, which enables it to adjust the number of aircraft to the seasonal needs of the market.

On July 24th, Transat announced an agreement with the U.S.-based International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) for the long-term leasing of 4 Boeing B737-800s, which will become the core of TS’s permanent narrow-body fleet.

"We are continuing to move forward with our implementation of a fleet of narrow and wide body jets that is adaptable to seasonal needs," said Jean-Marc Eustache, President & CEO of Transat, adding: "This deal gives us greater flexibility and a significantly improved cost structure. This strategy is key to our future success and to a return to profitability in winter, and will also ensure that we maintain the high quality of our products and our customer experience."

The aircraft will be operated by TS. Does this mean TS crews will fly them ?

First of all does "TS" mean Transavia or Transat? This would indicate a wet or dry lease.

These will be Transat dry-leases, operated by TS who will be looking for clever, original, and new ways of hiring Canadians to crew these aircraft in the winter season despite the fact that these will be seasonal aircraft.

Transavia's codes are "TO" at IATA and "TVF" at ICAO. TS and TSC are still Air Transat.

Good to see expansion at Air Transat and that Canadian crews will fly the aircraft. Good luck to all involved.

operated by TS who will be looking for clever, original, and new ways of hiring Canadians to crew these aircraft in the winter season

The way things are going there might be a "few" WestJet pilots that would be interested in those positions. Please post the details when they become available. Nice to see Transat stock north of $10.00 again.

despite the fact that these will be seasonal jobs.
but it's an improvement if there's a possibility to generate enough seniority/movement to obtain a permanent position.

When does the Canjet contract expire? April 30, 2014?

Is there any fleet growth at Transat this year?

Are the permanent 737s not just replacing 310s?

The 737s are replacing the Canjet contract. When the first arrive in the spring of 2014 (4 leased from ILFC) they will be additions to the fleet as far as I know.

Ok cause some media outlets were reporting a 1 for 1 swap with the 310s for the 737s and that Canjet will still be maintaining it's contract.

Lots of Rumours flying around but nothing concrete. There may be hiring there may not. However everyone who was laid off should have their bums in a seat by spring, I'll believe it when my but touches cloth but I'm optimistic

Cheers

Rumors wrote:Is there any fleet growth at Transat this year?

Your question was "this year" ?

No, there is not. Air Transat is grounding some widebodies this fall and will likely lay off some pilots. How many aircraft and how many pilots, I do not know, for now.

The 737s do not begin to arrive untill sometime in the spring of 2014 when the laid off pilots will be recalled and when perhaps new pilots may even be hired.

This is my personal understanding of the situation, as it stands today......

Gilles - dust off your crystal ball and describe what you believe will be the pilot staffing strategies used by AT and SW for the winter of 2014/2015 and beyond. And I do not mean how you want it to be, but rather how you reasonably expect that it will play out given recent announcements by several of the players. It seems like these two companies are on a convergent path when it comes to accordion fleets and pilot staffing logistics.

rudder wrote:Gilles - dust off your crystal ball and describe what you believe will be the pilot staffing strategies used by AT and SW for the winter of 2014/2015 and beyond. And I do not mean how you want it to be, but rather how you reasonably expect that it will play out given recent announcements by several of the players. It seems like these two companies are on a convergent path when it comes to accordion fleets and pilot staffing logistics.

One year from now for the winter ?

Air Transat will have several less widebodies than it has today (20 now, probably 14 during the winter 2014/2015)

However, it has announced that it has leased 4 year-round 737s from ILFC as of the Spring of 2014 and 4 additional seasonal 737s with Transavia-France for the 2014/2015 winter.

So the winter 2014-2015 fleet will consists of about 8 A-330s, 6 A-310s, and 8 737s for a total of about 22 aircraft. We used to have 24 aircraft before the layoffs, so all of these aircraft will be crewed by Air Transat pilots which will come over from the 310 and 330 fleets and by the furloughed pilots which will be all called back (and maybe a few hires to replace those that have jumped ship in the meantime). In the spring of 2015, we will send the 4 seasonal 737s back to Transavia and bring back 3 or more wide bodies for the summer season, so the supernumerary 737 pilots will just go back to their previous wide-body aircraft.....
A number of pilots will have to maintain dual qualification 310/737 or 330/737. We will in effect be doing reciprocity with ourselves.......

I think its a sound plan and will bring Transat back into sustained black ink.

As for Sunwing, these people are way too smart and inventive for me to be attempting to guess what their crewing strategy will be in 14 months. I'm still trying to figure out what they have up their sleeve for this coming winter...... and I wouldn't at all be surprised if they were able to surprise the hell out of me in 2014 with a totally new and unexpected move........

Haha, you have no idea! It'll shock ya..... Can't wait