Air Transat plans more seats in bid to save money

Air Transat plans to increase the number of seats aboard its Airbus A330 jets on routes to London and Paris as part of abid to save money.

It also plans to increase revenue from passengers on "ancillary services,"a term that could include charges for preferred seating and other options, according to vice-president of public affairs Michel Lamay. Air Transat does not charge for checked baggage and doesn't plan to introduce a fee, he said.

• WestJet floats idea of thinner seats, and more of them
• Air Canada CEO says baggage fees, fuel charges essential

The airline is aiming for $100 million in cost savings and margin improvements over the next three years, after losing $64.3 million in the first quarter of 2015, up from a $25.6 million loss a year earlier.

Air Transat announced plans to increase seating density on its wide-bodied Airbus A330 jets, but Lamay asserted that would have "no impact on the customer experience."

The seating plan will give passengers 81centimetres of pitch (room from the back of one seat to the next), an amount Lamay described as the standard for Air Transat flights. The total number of seats, including club class seats, is expandingfrom 345 to 375 on the A330-300 jets, which are wide-bodied, he said.

"In this case, the additional 30 seats will be one more seat per row on 30 rows (from eight abreast to nine abreast).So the number of rows remains unchanged,and the pitch remains the same," Lamay said in an email statement.

That seat pitchis slightly better than Air Canada Rouge with 76 to 77 cm of space.

Extra fees on airlines

The plan comes after Westjet announced plans to put thinner seats on its aircraft to boost the number of passengers.

Additionally Air Canada CEO Calin Rovinescu told CBC last week that fees for extra services are often the only way to improve profitability in the airline business, which has razor-thin margins.

On Thursday, Transat said revenue for the first quarter of 2015 fell 6.9 per cent to $788.6 million. The number of passengers travelling declined and revenue from subleasing aircraft also fell.

The airline also felt the impact of a falling Canadian dollar, which "even in light of lower aircraft fuel prices, led to a $15 million increase in operating expenses,"according to acompany news release. Costs in many sun destinations remain tied to the U.S. dollar, even as the loonie falls.

Its European routes were hurt by the decline of the euro, amid tough competition on discount fares.

Cost-savings plan

The number of travellers on Air Transat declined by 8.1 per cent, the company said.

In light of the difficulties, Air Transat announced a plan to save $45million in 2015, $30million in 2016 and $25million in 2017

Among its cost-cutting proposals:

• Decrease the number of wide-body aircraft operated in winter by using its more flexible narrow-body aircraft fleet.
• Implement a connecting-flights strategy, starting next summer in Canada, routing flights fromVancouver, Quebec City andHalifax through hubs in in Toronto and Montreal.
• Gain an air partner in Europe by 2016 in Europe to pave the way for new destinations.
• Increase density of three wide-body Airbus A330s on the London and Paris routes.
• Increase ancillary revenues from the sale of optional services to travellers and from other sources such as freight.
• Upgrade the technology on its reservation systems.

Air Transat also proposed some measures to build passenger traffic, among them:

• Introduce new destinations in Europe, starting with Budapest in summer 2015.
• Fine-tune its sun destinations packages.
• Continue to develop partnerships with family-oriented Lookea clubs in France.