MarkA380 flew Air Transat Economy, on a A330-200 (new config.) (26/10/2012 10:56)

Flew Manchester to Vancouver October 2012.

This was my second trip to Vancouver with Air Transat and this time I got to experience Air Transat's new style cabin.

Firstly, on boarding the aircraft you notice the new all leather seating, each fitted with seat back tv's. This is standard on most long haul airlines these days so it's nice to see it finally being rolled out by Air Transat across their entire A330 fleet.

The seats themselves are pretty comfortable, more so than the ones used in their older cabin. I would say there is slightly more legroom too, not much more, but every little helps!

A very noticable feature of the new cabin is the mood lighting, designed to reduce the effect of jet lag and create more of a relaxed mood in flight. On boarding the aircraft, the cabin had a cosy blue lighting which was quite relaxed. Once in the air the lighting then changed gradually from blues to purples, to reds, pinks and greens. A nice feature, but one which I soon forgot about.

The cabin service starts with the sale of comfort packs and headsets. This is then followed by a snack service and then finally a bar service. In economy soft drinks are complementary but alcoholic drinks are not and are charged for at $6 each.

After this, a hot meal is served. Have to say the food isn't the best, but then the prices on Air Transat are so much lower than their competition so you can't expect it to be comparable. The nice thing however is a small complimentary glass of wine offered with your meal.

Plenty of further drinks services were followed, and the crew didn't seem to stop much at all on the 10 hour flight. You never went thirsty.

A light snack was served about an hour before landing, which was a small pizza. Perfectly nice.

Above all the flight ran on time and was pretty comfortable. For the price you can't ask for more.

To conclude, having experienced their old style cabin I can say that their new cabin is of course better, but let's not get carried away - the introduction of new seat back tv's and some coloured lighting is the only noticable difference and something which most airlines have been doing for years.

The experience, whilst pleasant, will not feel new for most people used to flying on scheduled airlines and the configuration of 3-3-3 on an A330 still means the seats are narrower than what many will be used to.

MarkA380 flew Air Transat Economy, on a A330-200 (25/09/2012 15:09)

Flew with Air Transat Manchester to Vancouver - May 2012.

Was really pleasantly surprised with my flight to Vancouver with Air Transat. I had heard awful stories about the legroom and lack of service on board. So I was prepared to suffer for the 10 hour flight!

Imagine my surprise when boarding the aircraft our A330-200 had personal seat back tv's, leather seating and actually no less legroom than any other airline in economy really. Yes the seats are a little tighter due to them fitting an extra seat across every row (3-3-3 instead of the usual 2-4-2) but really for most people this isn't going to be a problem.

This was obviously a pretty new aircraft to the fleet, although not one of the refurbished cabins. The inflight entertainment, moving map, touch screen tv's were all great and I could even charge my iPad using the seatback USB port - very handy.

Service was great, complimentary soft drinks and food pretty decent with pizza served as a pre-landing snack.

On the return journey I was lucky to get the same plane again so another good flight.

I am flying back to Vancouver in October, I can only hope I get lucky with Air Transat again!

SteveWard flew Air Transat Economy, on a A310-300 (11/06/2012 13:31)

This was my 13th flight this year and I guess I have been spoiled with other long haul carriers as this was by far the worst flight I have ever been on.

I paid extra money for seat 14A, an emergency exit seat so I may stretch my legs as I am a big guy at 6'4" and 250lbs. The seats in economy look like they were designed for children and the configuration of 9 seats across clearly does not work, where most airlines have a 2-3-2 config for this plane, the Airbus A310. I was wedged between the passenger who was overlapping my seat and squashed against the window of the plane for 6 hours!

All in all the flight was very cheap at £400 plus the extra for the emergency exit seat. My advice, if using using this airline, is to pay extra to sit in an aisle seat or towards the back of the plane at each side where the config is 2-3-2.

RichGlosUk flew Air Transat Economy, on a A330-200 (09/06/2012 09:32)

I was pleasantly surprised with my flight from Vancouver to Gatwick. Seat size and pitch easily compares to Virgin and BA. Crew were extremely pleasant. Food was in fairly short supply but no different to industry average - just take a snack for mid flight although they do sell Pringles and chocolate. On time.

cumpleby flew Air Transat Economy (31/10/2009 13:30)

UflyRight flew Air Transat Economy, on a A330-200 (13/09/2009 16:17)

It was crammed and the food was bad. However there was only 11 TV's but there was some good entertinment on board. But the supplies were not good as they do not get more snacks or duty free on board in the UK and only in Canada.

panormus flew Air Transat Economy, on a A310-300 (07/09/2009 23:09)

Just returned from a vacation from Mexico to Canada and my family and I had a great time.

We stayed at the Bahia Principe Akumal in Riviera Maya. Just paradise.Unfortunately ,as usual, something does leave a very sour taste in your mouth.Airtranshit and it's ground personnel in Cancun should be ashamed of themeselves.Arrogance,from Mexicans!!!!!, Lousy service on board and seats that must have been designed for anorexics!!

Next time will pay more but fly comfortably with some REAL AIRLINE, not a third world transport company!

First and last time with Airsardines!!!