Air Transat to lease four Boeing 737-800s, will retain the Airbus A330-200s

FPP - Lisboa

Transat A.T. Inc., the parent of Air Transat (Montreal) has announced the signing of an agreement with the U.S.-based International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) for the long-term (eight-year) lease of four Boeing 737-800 aircraft. This new type will be introduced in the summer of 2014 and will become the core of Air Transat’s permanent narrow-body fleet. The 737-800s will be used on sun-destination routes to Mexico, the Caribbean and Florida. The agreement also includes the renewal through 2020 and 2021 of the leases on six Airbus A330 aircraft—three A330-200s and A330-300s—with improved terms.

The three long-range A330-200s were originally to be phased out of the fleet. Transat and ILFC, however, reached an agreement that will enable Transat to achieve its objective of reducing costs, and that, in the case of these aircraft, will prove more advantageous than the seasonal subcontracting arrangement originally envisioned.