Air Transat launches new transatlantic route (map)

Canadian leisure operators; air traffic, You are in growth mode. According to the schedule submitted by the airline to OAG, an average of 28 times a day. flight Scheduled for July and August, it is an increase of more than 5% from the previous record.

A new path contributed. Since May, several transatlantic routes have started or resumed: Montreal to Agadir, Dakar and Keflavík; From Ottawa to London Gatwick; From Quebec City to Marseille and Nantes; and Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) Arrived in Tirana. A planned service from YYZ to Accra was scrapped earlier this year.

Air Transat departs for Albania.

Credit: Air Transat

On June 18, ahead of the peak summer season when demand and fares are highest, Air Transat took off from YYZ to its next destination. Tirana International Airport (Tia). In many ways, it was a historic development. For example, it is TIA’s only long-haul service, by far the airport’s longest non-stop operation in more than 20 years, and the first scheduled service from Canada to Albania. We plan to write a weekly article commemorating the new route (see last week’s issue).

It is quite unusual in other respects as well. For example, Air Transat only services new products. route weekly. However, this frequency is not unprecedented in an airline’s long-haul network. OAG shows that five of the airline’s transatlantic routes will have just one weekly departure this summer: Montreal to Agadir, Quebec to Marseille and Nantes, and YYZ to Lamezia Terme and TIA. As pictured below, the 332-seat Airbus A330-200 departs YYZ on Thursday and TIA on Friday.

While the plane is taking off Canada Within two hours, the crew appears to have been in southeastern Europe for a week. Not only are hotel and meal costs expensive, but during peak season, downtime can be significant. The final departure of the season is scheduled to depart TIA on October 9, with 17 round trips planned. Incentives and other risk-sharing arrangements will inevitably underpin new proposals.

YYZ to TIA: What is the demand?

Reservations data shows 315,000 round-trip passengers flew between North America and TIA from May 2025 to April 2026. Even ignoring significant seasonality, 863 people did so each day. There was no non-stop service, so everyone was flying indirectly. Most of them did that Austrian Airlines Via Vienna, lufthansa Via Frankfurt and Munich, turkish airlines Via Istanbul, British Airways Via London Heathrow. Turkish Airlines is aggressively targeting passengers returning to Europe.

With 34,000 round-trip passengers, YYZ was the second-largest market in North America, behind Greater New York (137,000), which includes JFK and Newark combined. Air Transat will also capture passengers flying elsewhere via YYZ through its partnership with Porter Airlines. As with NYC and all other markets, the issue is more about rates and yields than demand (even without direct flights). This reflects the nature of demand from visiting friends and relatives, as this segment rarely travels in premium class.

Excluding taxes, surcharges and fuel surcharges, the average base fare for YYZ-TIA was just US$313. This translates to a very low price of 7.2 US cents per nautical mile. For example, YYZ-Madrid, although not a close comparison, was $465 or 14.2 cents per nautical mile. Iberia started this route after 30 years and is coexisting with Air Canada.

Three routes opening from Canada to Central and Eastern Europe this year

Credit: Air Serbia

May 23rd, air serbia Service launched from Belgrade to YYZ (twice weekly A330-200). This route was previously operated by JAT Yugoslav Airlines 34 years ago. June 5th, air canada YYZ has launched flights to Budapest, a route last operated by the low-cost Rouge between 2016 and 2019. This is the first time that Air Canada has flown to Hungary. Then there is Air Transat from YYZ to TIA.

In the 12 months to April 2026, YYZ-Belgrade had 48,000 round-trip passengers, TIA had 34,000 (as mentioned earlier) and Budapest had 32,000. They were the top three non-delivery destinations for YYZ in Central and Eastern Europe. Bucharest is now the largest city without services. Although it had only 24,000 passengers, its average base fare was 55% higher than TIA’s. Will the route return on some airlines after being operated by Air Canada Rouge in 2018/2019? Never say never.