Transat A.T. Inc., parent company of Canadian leisure carrier Air Transat (TS, Montréal Trudeau), has warned it may have to lay off 80 employees as it faces financial difficulties, however this will not impact the airline's activities, the company said.
"There is no impact on the airline activities or our operations as the precautionary and regulatory warning to the Quebec Ministry of Labour could only affect employees under the provincial jurisdiction and therefore not our Air Transat employees under the federal jurisdiction," spokeswoman Andréan Gagné informed ch-aviation. "Eighty is an approximation and represents about 1% of our total workforce of over 5000 employees."
She said that regulatory notifications about potential dismissals are a precautionary measure to comply with provincial regulations. Quebec labour regulations mandate that certain companies must report potential redundancy figures for provincially regulated jobs, regardless of whether or not they materialise.
In the emailed notice seen by The Canadian Press news agency, Transat A.T. clarified that the potential redundancies could happen by November 1 but would not affect pilots, cabin crew, or other federally regulated roles.
Transat A.T. has encountered a challenging year marked by Pratt & Whitney engine problems in its A321neo fleet, strike threats, and heightened competition amid an economic downturn. The holding reported a loss of CAD54 million Canadian dollars (USD40 million) for the second quarter of 2024, up from a CAD29.1 million (USD21.5 million) loss for the same period last year. Despite a 12% year-on-year revenue increase to CAD973 million (USD719 million), expenses rose by 16%, totalling CAD988 million (USD730 million).
Subsidiary Air Transat operates nineteen A321-200NX(LR)s, along with eight A321-200s, fourteen A330-200s, and two A330-300s, according to ch-aviation fleets data. It has four A321-200NY(XLR)s on order from Airbus, delivery of which may be delayed until 2026 due to production bottlenecks.
