The company will invest $4 million per aircraft over the next two years to enhance the in-flight experience

Transat A.T. Inc., one of the largest integrated tourism companies in the world and Canada’s holiday travel leader, along with its business unit Air Transat, Canada’s leading holiday travel airline, this week proudly unveiled the first Air Transat Airbus A330 to feature a new, fully redesigned cabin interior.

Travellers in both Club and Economy classes will enjoy comfort innovations and improvements, notably roomier, ergonomically designed leather seats with state-of-the-art touchscreen-based personal entertainment systems. The aircraft will seat 333 in Economy and 12 in Club class, for a total of 345 passengers. The lavatories have also been entirely redesigned, as have cabin layout features overall, with the aim of better fulfilling travellers’ needs. Passenger comfort will be further enhanced thanks to the brand-new mood lighting system, which employs sophisticated technology to vary cabin lighting levels and colours, smoothing the transitions between the various phases of a flight.

“We care more than ever about our passengers’ in-flight experience, and the changes introduced today address our ultimate objective: to deliver valued-added tourism services and exceptional standards of quality,” explained Allen B. Graham, President, Transat Canada and President and CEO, Air Transat. “As we introduce these cabin improvements, today we also reiterate our commitment to providing best-in-class, professional in-flight services.”

Cabin interior refurbishments for the remainder of the Airbus A330 fleet will be completed gradually over a two-year period at a cost of $4 million per aircraft. Three A330s with the new interiors will be in service by this summer, flying Air Transat’s Europe routes.

“The Transat adventure began 25 years ago, and is continuing in style in this anniversary year with a renewed range of unique, high-quality products,” said Jean-Marc Eustache, President and CEO, Transat A.T. Inc. “We are intensifying our efforts to differentiate, and the related investments are being made according to an overall strategy and following a coherent vision geared toward achieving a key goal: to deliver the best customer experience on the market.”

The first refurbished aircraft to enter service was unveiled at special events attended by close to 500 travel industry experts, held May 15 in Toronto and May 17 in Montreal.

An added green bonus is that all of the A330s in the fleet will also be lighter once the cabin redesigns are complete, which will mean substantial fuel and cost savings. In the case of the first aircraft, the weight difference is two tonnes. This key feature complies with Air Transat’s environmental stewardship philosophy and serves its long-term objectives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Note that Air Transat was rated the world’s greenest airline in the long-haul category by the Atmosfair Airline Index for 2011.

Transat A.T. Inc. is an integrated international tour operator with more than 60 destination countries and that distributes products in over 50 countries. A holiday travel specialist, Transat operates mainly in Canada and Europe, as well as in the Caribbean, Mexico and the Mediterranean Basin. Montreal-based Transat is also active in air transportation, accommodation, destination services and distribution. (TSX: TRZ.B, TRZ.A).

Air Transat is Canada’s leading holiday travel airline. Every year, it carries some 3 million passengers to nearly 60 destinations in 25 countries aboard its fleet of Airbus wide-body jets. The company employs approximately 2,000 people. Air Transat is a business unit of Transat A.T. Inc., an integrated international tour operator with more than 60 destination countries and that distributes products in over 50 countries.

Visual content available: http://www.transat.com/new-cabin/