Air Transat Bets Big on Winter Sun and Year-Round Europe With Its Most Ambitious Off-Season Schedule Yet

Air Transat has today begun unveiling its 2026-2027 winter program with the announcement of four new routes, Quebec City–San José, Toronto–Fort-de-France, London–Puerto Plata, and Charlottetown-Punta Cana, as well as the expansion of the Toronto–Paris and Montreal–Barcelona routes to year-round service. The announcement, which represents the first phase of the carrier's winter build-out, marks the most expansive off-season programme the Montreal-based leisure airline has attempted to date — bridging sun destinations across the Caribbean and Central America with a growing European footprint that is fast shedding its summer-only character.

Four New Routes, Two Continents

The headline development in today's announcement is the addition of four entirely new routes, each addressing a gap in Air Transat's existing leisure network.

Quebec City–San José opens a direct link from the provincial capital to Costa Rica for the first time, while Toronto–Fort-de-France connects Canada's largest city to the French Caribbean island of Martinique. On the regional side, London (Ontario)–Puerto Plata brings the Dominican Republic within reach of southwestern Ontario without a connection, and Charlottetown–Punta Cana gives Prince Edward Island travellers a new direct path to one of the Caribbean's most popular beach destinations. 

These routes enhance the airline's existing sun destination offering, which already includes flights to Cancún and Punta Cana from London, as well as Cancún from Charlottetown. By layering new Caribbean destinations onto existing thin-market gateways, Air Transat continues to demonstrate that regional airports, long considered secondary priorities by larger carriers, represent a strategically important segment of Canada's leisure travel market.

Toronto–Paris and Montreal–Barcelona Go Year-Round

Alongside the four new sun routes, the most structurally significant move in today's announcement concerns Air Transat's European network. The decision to convert both Toronto–Paris and Montreal–Barcelona to year-round operations signals a deliberate effort by the carrier to reduce its dependency on peak-season transatlantic revenue and build a more resilient, 12-month European business.

This first phase focuses on attractive additions to sun destinations and strengthening the airline's transatlantic offering. The move follows a broader multi-year pattern of de-seasonalisation at Transat. Earlier in the 2025-2026 winter cycle, the airline had already extended its Montreal–Madrid service into the colder months for the first time, as part of Air Transat's strategy to reduce the seasonality of its transatlantic network.

The momentum behind this approach now clearly carries forward into winter 2026-2027, with Barcelona and Paris joining the list of European cities accessible from Canada beyond the traditional summer window.

Florida Makes Its Return

One of the most passenger-facing elements of the new programme is the return of Fort Lauderdale to Air Transat's winter schedule. After a pause during the summer season, Air Transat will resume service to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in winter 2026-2027. The airline will offer up to seven weekly flights from Montreal, three weekly flights from Quebec City, and a weekly flight from Halifax. 

The reintroduction of Florida, long a staple winter escape for Canadians, across three separate gateways, with Montreal receiving up to daily service, underlines the commercial confidence Air Transat is placing in the route category. Florida's combination of warm weather, established Canadian diaspora links, and strong leisure demand makes it one of the most reliable winter revenue generators in the Canadian aviation market.

Regional Airports Remain Central to the Strategy

Air Transat's consistent investment in secondary markets, such as Charlottetown, London, and Quebec City, is one of the more distinctive elements of its network philosophy. While larger carriers tend to concentrate capacity through major hubs, Air Transat has built a model that meets Canadians where they live, rather than requiring them to connect through Toronto or Montreal for access to international destinations.

Air Transat is continuing to expand its presence at regional airports with the addition of Puerto Plata from London (Ontario) and Punta Cana from Charlottetown (Prince Edward Island). This approach is consistent with the airline's track record from the 2025-2026 winter season, when it launched new routes from Windsor, Charlottetown, and Fredericton to popular sun destinations, a programme that extended Transat's brand reach into communities that had not previously had meaningful access to direct international leisure flights.

The Strategic Logic

Sebastian Ponce, Chief Revenue Officer at Transat, said: 

"Demand for sun destinations remains strong, and Transat's recognized expertise in leisure travel enables us to respond with ambition. Leveraging our brand, our network and a strategy focused on diversification and optimization, we continue to enhance our offering and expand our presence in high-potential markets." 

That strategy of diversification is visible across multiple dimensions of the winter 2026-2027 announcement: new sun destinations in Central America and the French Caribbean, the re-establishment of Florida, the expansion of secondary Ontario and Maritime market access, and the structural conversion of major European routes to year-round operations. Together, they reflect a carrier that is no longer content to define itself primarily through its summer transatlantic dominance, but is instead building the infrastructure, both commercial and operational, for a more balanced and less season-dependent business.

Additional announcements will follow in the coming weeks to complete the 2026-2027 winter program. With this first phase already representing one of the most substantial single-announcement expansions in Air Transat's recent history, the full picture of what the airline intends for winter travel promises to be even more compelling when its remaining schedule is unveiled.

Air Transat, which was voted 2025 World's Best Leisure Airline by passengers at the Skytrax World Airline Awards, is clearly deploying that recognition as commercial momentum, using its brand credibility to open markets that would have been considered too thin or too seasonal just a few years ago.

Air Transat Winter 2026/27 Expanded Route Schedule