Canada’s leisure operator, Air Transat, is in growth mode. According to the carrier’s schedule submission to OAG, an average of 28 daily flights are planned for July and August, which has exceeded the prior record by 5%.

New routes have contributed. Since May, multiple transatlantic routes have started or resumed: Montreal to Agadir, Dakar, and Keflavik; Ottawa to London Gatwick; Quebec City to Marseille and Nantes; and Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) to Tirana. Planned service from YYZ to Accra was scrapped earlier this year.

Air Transat Jets Off To Albania

Credit: Air Transat

On June 18, ahead of the peak summer with the highest demand and fares, Air Transat took off from YYZ to Tirana International Airport (TIA). It was an historic development in various ways. For example, it is TIA’s only long-haul service, by far the airport’s longest nonstop operation in 20+ years and possibly ever, and Albania’s first-ever scheduled service from Canada. It is bound to make the weekly celebratory new routes article (see last week’s edition).

It is fairly unusual in other ways, too. For example, Air Transat only serves the brand-new route weekly. Still, this frequency is not unprecedented in the airline’s long-haul network. OAG shows that five of the carrier’s transatlantic links only have one weekly departure this summer: Montreal to Agadir, Quebec City to Marseille and Nantes, and YYZ to Lamezia Terme and TIA. As shown below, the 332-seat Airbus A330-200 leaves YYZ on Thursdays and departs from TIA on Fridays.

While the aircraft departs for Canada within two hours, the crew appears to remain in Southeast Europe for a week. Not only will the hotels and meals be expensive, but there is also a considerable amount of downtime given it’s the peak season. The final departure of the season is due to leave TIA on October 9, with 17 round-trip services planned. Incentives and other risk-sharing agreements will inevitably underpin the new offering.

YYZ To TIA: What’s The Demand?

Booking data shows that 315,000 round-trip passengers flew between North America and TIA between May 2025 and April 2026. 863 people did so daily, although that ignores big seasonality. Given no nonstop services, everyone flew indirectly. Most did so with Austrian Airlines via Vienna, Lufthansa via Frankfurt and Munich, Turkish Airlines via Istanbul, and British Airways via London Heathrow. Turkish Airlines aggressively targets passengers backtracking to Europe.

With 34,000 round-trip passengers, YYZ was the second-largest North American market, after Greater New York (137,000), when JFK and Newark are combined. Air Transat will also capture passengers flying elsewhere via YYZ via in partnership with Porter Airlines. Like NYC and all the other markets, the problem is less about the demand (even without nonstop flights) and more about the fares and yields. This reflects the visiting friends and relatives nature of the demand, as this segment rarely travels in premium classes.

Excluding taxes, add-ons, and any fuel surcharge, the average base fare for YYZ-TIA was only US$313. That meant a very low US 7.2 cents per nautical mile. While not a like-for-like comparison, YYZ-Madrid, for example, was $465 or 14.2 cents per nautical mile. Iberia just began this route after an absence of 30+ years, and it coexists with Air Canada.

Three Routes Launch From Canada To Central & Eastern Europe This Year

Credit: Air Serbia

On May 23, Air Serbia launched service from Belgrade to YYZ (twice-weekly A330-200). The route was previously served by JAT Yugoslav Airlines 34 years ago. On June 5, Air Canada began flying from YYZ to Budapest, with that route last served by its lower-cost unit, Rouge, between 2016 and 2019. It is the first time that Air Canada mainline has flown to Hungary. Then there’s Air Transat from YYZ to TIA.

In the 12 months to April 2026, YYZ-Belgrade had 48,000 round-trip passengers, TIA had 34,000 (as mentioned earlier), and Budapest had 32,000. They were YYZ’s top three unserved destinations in Central and Eastern Europe. Bucharest is now the largest unserved city. While it only had 24,000 passengers, the average base fare was 55% higher than TIA’s. Having been served by Air Canada Rouge in 2018/2019, will the route return with some operator? Never say never.