🇨🇦 Air Transat in Detail: Canada's Leisure-Airline Leader【Loyalty Program in Testing】

【September 29, 2026 update】 In January 2026, Air Transat said it would launch its own loyalty program later this year (article). A test version is now live (official page). If you were invited, you can try it.

The airline

Air Transat (IATA code: TS) is a Canadian leisure airline based in Montreal, Quebec, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the public company Transat A.T. Inc. It was founded in 1986, flew its first service in November 1987, and the group has about 5,000 employees.

Unlike Air Canada and WestJet, which fly a broad network, Air Transat has focused on the leisure market from the start: Europe in summer, sun destinations in winter, sold mainly as flight-plus-vacation packages. That focus has earned it Skytrax’s World’s Best Leisure Airline award eight times. The latest win was September 18, 2026, in London (earlier wins: 2012, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024, and 2025; 2022 was the North America award). No other Canadian airline has that record.

Its main hub is Montréal-Trudeau (YUL), then Toronto Pearson (YYZ), Québec City (YQB), and Ottawa (YOW). It is not in a global alliance, which matters when you are trying to earn miles (more on that below).

Partner network

• Porter Airlines (joint venture, announced November 2023): The networks fit together. Porter covers Canada and short-haul U.S. flying; Air Transat covers transatlantic and sun routes. They codeshare, coordinate fares, and share revenue. If you live in Western Canada or the Atlantic provinces, you can buy one ticket via Toronto or Montreal to Europe or the Caribbean, with bags checked through, instead of buying two separate tickets.
• WestJet (codeshare, effective May 2022): WestJet’s WS code sits on Air Transat’s transatlantic flights (France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Croatia, and others). Air Transat’s TS code sits on WestJet’s North American flights. You can buy one connecting ticket, and bags are checked through.
• Turkish Airlines (interline / codeshare): Tied to the Toronto–Istanbul route that opened in December 2025. You can connect in Istanbul onto Turkish’s network for Turkey, Asia, and beyond.

Fleet

Air Transat is an all-Airbus fleet. The latest full disclosure is the group annual report dated October 31, 2025: 43 aircraft. Third-party fleet databases in September 2026 showed about 41 (the gap is mostly expired leases and Pratt & Whitney engine downtime — 6 or 7 A321neos were grounded for engine work in 2026). The mix:

A few points worth knowing:

• The A321LR is the heart of the fleet. Each aircraft has 199 seats, including 12 Club Class seats, and a range of about 7,400 km. Air Transat was the first North American airline to fly the type. Narrow-body costs on transatlantic routes make nonstops such as Montreal–Dakar and Québec City–Nantes possible — city pairs a wide-body could not fill. That is why so many new routes have opened.
• Four A321XLRs are on order. The first is expected by the end of 2027, with a published range of about 8,700 km, which extends the long-haul narrow-body network further.
• The airline used to fly Boeing 727/737/757s, Airbus A310/A320s, and the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. Those types are all retired.

Routes

The network covers more than 60 destinations in Canada, the United States, Europe, the Caribbean, Central America, South America, and Africa. It is highly seasonal: Europe in summer, sun destinations in winter.

Summer (Europe season)

• United Kingdom: London Gatwick (Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa), Manchester, Glasgow
• France: Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux, Nantes, Lyon, Toulouse, Nice — one of the densest sets of nonstops from Canada to France
• Southern Europe: Lisbon, Porto, Rome, Venice, Athens, Barcelona, Madrid, Málaga
• Elsewhere: Dublin, Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin, Istanbul, Reykjavik
• North Africa and Africa: Marrakech; Agadir (new in 2026, the first nonstop from North America); Dakar (new in 2026)
• New long-haul: Toronto–Tirana (Albania, the only nonstop from North America); Toronto–Accra (Ghana)

Winter (sun season)

• Caribbean: Cancún, Punta Cana, Varadero, Montego Bay, Fort-de-France (Martinique), Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe)
• Central and South America: San José (Costa Rica), Panama City’s Tocumen (new for winter 2026–27), Cartagena, Lima, Rio de Janeiro, Georgetown (Guyana)
• United States: Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, plus New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and others

2026 capacity warning: With fuel prices up sharply, Transat said in April 2026 it would cut about 6% of capacity from May through October (fewer flights on some Europe and Caribbean routes). Cuba flights stopped in mid-February 2026 because of a jet-fuel shortage at Havana, and the pause has been extended through October. A city on the destination list is not a daily flight. Check the schedule for your dates.

One practical note if you are travelling from Canada: Air Transat flights to Europe and the Caribbean are nonstop and do not connect through the United States, which helps if you do not have a U.S. visa or do not want to clear U.S. immigration on a connection.

Loyalty program

This is Air Transat’s biggest gap, and the part changing the most in 2026. Keep “announced” separate from “in testing / rumoured.”

The history: no program of its own

For years Air Transat had no loyalty program of its own, and it is not in Star Alliance, SkyTeam, or oneworld. That means:

• Flying Air Transat does not earn Aeroplan, WestJet Rewards, or other mainstream alliance miles.
• You also cannot spend those miles on Air Transat tickets.

2026: Air Transat Rewards (invite-only test)

In January 2026, Air Transat announced its own program, Air Transat Rewards, with Desjardins and Visa Canada. The test site is points.airtransat.com. For now, only members who receive an invitation can join, in batches. Everyone else can join a waitlist. Air Transat has said that features, terms, and benefits during the test can change or disappear, and that test benefits are not guaranteed to match the final program. A full launch is expected by the end of 2026.

Rules disclosed for the test (the final program may change; treat this as a snapshot):

Earning (on dollars spent, not on distance)

• Points are calculated on the pre-tax fare. Taxes and airport fees do not earn.
• Extras earn only if you buy them 48–72 hours before departure.
• During the test, only Air Transat-operated flights earn. Porter-operated codeshares do not.
• The privacy policy also says a future version may include cobrand-card spending, partner activity, and even linked family accounts or a points pool. None of that detail is public yet.

Spending points

• Points can be used only on airtransat.com.
• They can offset the pre-tax fare for every passenger on the booking. Taxes and surcharges are paid in cash.
• The points required track the cash fare (dynamic pricing). You can cover 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, or 100% of that pre-tax amount.
• Changes and refunds follow the cash-ticket rules. If the fare is refundable, points come back as points and cash comes back as cash.
• During the test, points cannot pay for extras such as seats or bags. That is the opposite of what some posts have claimed.

Elite status: none so far

As of the end of September 2026, Air Transat has not published elite tiers, qualification, or how to keep status. The test program is a rebate-style scheme, closer to WestJet Rewards than to a traditional mileage program. Details of a Desjardins cobrand Visa are also unpublished and are expected when the program fully launches.

A common mix-up: Today’s Club Class and Option Plus are paid cabin and add-on products, not elite benefits. The word “Club” does not mean elite status.

In short: If you collect miles, Air Transat is still a mileage desert. If you often fly from Montreal or Toronto to Europe on holiday, it is worth joining the waitlist and deciding at the end of 2026 whether the finished program is worth concentrating spend on.

What stands out

Club Class: premium economy that plays like a short-haul business cabin

Club Class is a premium-economy / regional-business hybrid. The seat does not lie flat, but among leisure airlines it is near the top of the range:

• A separate small cabin with only 12 seats. The A321LR is 2-2; the A330 is 2-2-2. No middle seat.
• A wide leather seat with a footrest and a six-way headrest. The A321LR has a 13.3-inch screen.
• A choice of two main courses, served on china, plus two reds, two whites, a sparkling wine, and spirits, with snacks and drinks refilled.
• Priority check-in, priority boarding, and priority baggage, plus a faster security lane at some airports.
• Two checked bags of 23 kg included.
• The fare is usually 2–3 times a standard economy fare, and it is priced dynamically.

Option Plus: an economy add-on bundle

If you do not want Club Class, Option Plus adds priority check-in, boarding, and baggage, a larger checked-bag allowance, free seat selection (including preferred seats), and a voucher for a snack and a drink. It is the cheaper way to make the economy seat more comfortable.

Families: free seats together is a real perk

• Children ages 2–13 travelling with a parent or guardian on the same booking get adjacent standard seats at no charge. The system assigns them 14 days before departure. You do not have to pay for seat selection.
• Kids Club (ages 2–11, free to join): member children get free standard seat selection, priority boarding (except on U.S. routes), an inflight entertainment kit, and a small gift.
• There is a family check-in counter and a children’s meal. Families heading to the Caribbean can skip a seat-selection fee.

Vacation packages are the real product

As part of Transat, Air Transat’s edge is the flight-plus-hotel package. You can book the flight and an all-inclusive resort on the same site. In peak season the package is often cheaper than buying the flight and hotel separately, and that is how it competes with Air Canada.

Summary