Air Transat Montreal from inside: the Quebec crew, the seasonal shape, the A321LR across the Atlantic and the bilingual cabin
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#1 Air Transat, Montreal, and I have replied in the Canadian threads as the fifth option without writing it. Here is Transat from inside, for the Québécois and the Canadians who want leisure long haul from Montreal and Toronto.
The airline
Canada's leisure carrier, Montreal based with Toronto as the other big base, A330s and the A321LRs that cross the Atlantic on a narrow body, a network to Europe in summer (Paris heavily, London, Lisbon, Porto, Rome, Athens, Barcelona, Dublin, Glasgow, Amsterdam) and the Caribbean, Mexico and Florida in winter. A seasonal airline with two seasons and two networks.
The Quebec crew
Montreal is the heart and the crew room is French, with the Toronto base English and the bilingual requirement for Montreal (French required) and Toronto (preferred). The Québécois crew identity is strong: the French passengers to Paris in summer, the Quebec families to Cancún in winter, the Montreal base as the airline's home. The Anglophones at Toronto have the leisure long haul without the French wall at the Air Canada level.
The seasonal shape
Summer: the Europe long haul, every aircraft, the Paris flights full of the Quebec diaspora and the French tourists, the A330 and the A321LR patterns with a 24 to 48 hour layover. Winter: the Caribbean and Mexico and Florida, the resort layovers, the A321s and the A330s to the sun. The crew contracts include seasonal and permanent, as at Jet2 and TUI, and the seasonal crew have the winter question with the Canadian winter outside.
The A321LR across the Atlantic
The thing Transat does that the Canadian legacies do not: a narrow body to Europe. Montreal to Paris or Lisbon on a 199 seat A321LR with four crew, seven to eight hours, a full service in a small galley. Georgie's Aer Lingus XLR thread has the rhythm: intimate, less space, a full long haul in a short haul aircraft. The crew either love it (the small crew) or miss the A330 (the space).
The bilingual cabin
French and English on every flight, with the Montreal crews switching by passenger and the Paris flights running in French. Spanish is a plus for the winter network. The Transat cabin is the most French of the Canadian long haul cabins and the Paris passengers notice.
The pay
Under the Transat collective agreement with CUPE, public, a Canadian leisure carrier scale that is below Air Canada mainline, comparable to WestJet, with the long haul allowances in euros in summer and dollars in winter. The Canadian pay problem Holly described applies and the union is on it.
For Canadian applicants
The Québécois with French: Transat Montreal is the leisure long haul from home with the Paris flights as the spine. The Anglophones: Transat Toronto for the leisure long haul without the Air Canada French wall. The ones who want the whole world: Air Canada. The ones who want the west: WestJet. The ones who want the E2 and the east: Porter. Five airlines and Transat is the leisure long haul one.
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#2 Air Canada Montreal, and Transat is where the Montreal leisure long haul crew are and the Paris flights in summer are the Quebec diaspora's airline. Chantal's placement of the five is the Canadian map complete.
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#3 WestJet Calgary, and the Transat A321LR across the Atlantic is the thing WestJet crew watch with interest as our 787 long haul grows. The narrow body long haul is a different job and Chantal's crew do it from Montreal every summer.
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#4 Aer Lingus, and the Transat A321LR to Dublin in summer is our XLR's cousin from the other direction: a narrow body across the Atlantic with four crew. The Transat crews at the Dublin hotel and ours compare the small galley. Same rhythm.
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#5 Rouge Toronto, and Transat Toronto and Rouge Toronto compete for the same leisure crew and the same Cancún hotel bar. Transat has the Europe summer that Rouge mostly does not. Chantal is fair to both.
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#6 TUI Glasgow, and the Transat Glasgow flight in summer brings the Quebec crew to our airport and the two leisure long haul crews recognise each other instantly: the seasonal shape, the resort winter, the Europe summer. Same tribe, French accent.
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#7 Porter, and the Canadian map is now five threads from five crew and the applicants have it. Transat is the leisure long haul and the most French. Chantal has completed the set.
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#8 @georgedub the small galley comparison at the Dublin hotel is a standing conversation and the Transat crews maintain the A321LR is the harder one because we do the Paris service in it. The Aer Lingus crews disagree. Respectfully.