Article from BTNews 20 MAY 2019
Air Canada buys Air Transat
A shake-up in the Canadian aviation industry continued last week as Air Canada entered into an agreement to buy rival carrier Air Transat. The deal is valued at C$520m (£302m).
The news came at the end of a busy week in Canada with the country’s second-biggest carrier, WestJet, earlier confirming plans to go private in a C$5bn (£3bn) deal with Onex Corporation (see story this issue).
On the Air Canada deal, president and chief executive Calin Rovinescu said: “A deal with Transat represents a great opportunity for stakeholders while travellers will benefit from the merged company’s enhanced ability to participate as a leader in the travel market.”
He added: “The acquisition presents a unique opportunity to compete with the very best in the world. It will also allow us to further grow our hub at Montréal-Trudeau Airport, where we have added 35 new routes since 2012 and from which we carried 10m customers in 2018 alone.”
Air Canada serves 11 airports across Quebec while the 35 new routes from Montréal-Trudeau to global markets including Gatwick and Manchester plus Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Lima, São Paulo, and Casablanca.
OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)
All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum
Tom Appleton, Oakville, ON
Yes, the Canadian Competition authorities may challenge it, but this seems to be in the best interests of the Province of Quebec and of Canada!
David Starkie, London
See: Air Canada’s takeover of Transat would sharply reduce competition on key overseas routes Kevin Bryan, Ambarish Chandra and Mara Lederman Contributed to The Globe and Mail