Transat A.T. is celebrating its 30th birthday with a facelift.

At an event at their facilities at Montreal-Trudeau Airport attended by 375 partners and guests, the Montreal-based integrated tourism company celebrated its three decades of operations on Monday. The company unveiled a new livery for Air Transat that still prominently features the company’s stylized star symbol on the tail, while both lightening up the background colour and adding a touch of grey, a nod to the airline’s original livery from when the airline first took to the skies back in 1987.

The colour scheme is supposed to “evoke the transformative power of holidays.” They’ve also added the name to the underside of their planes so airplane watchers and others can see what’s overhead.

“I feel a great sense of pride when I look at how far we've come since November 14, 1987, when our first flight took off from Montreal bound for Acapulco,” said Jean-Marc Eustache, president and chief executive officer of Transat. “And our journey is far from over. While our tour operating business and our aviation operations are tried and tested, our services continue to evolve to meet the expectations of travellers today and in the future. We have plenty of innovations coming up, including the new fleet livery that we are unveiling this evening, and the new hotel division that we are about to create, all in pursuit of our goal of remaining at the forefront of the travel industry.”

Transat has grown into a major Canadian operation and now offers flights from 21 Canadian airports to 60 destinations around the world; most of them in the sunny south of in Europe and the Middle East. They fly to 13 countries in Europe, as well as Israel and the United States, and employ 5,000 people around the world.

From its humble roots, Transat has grown into not only an airline that now flies more than 4.5 million passengers a year, but also offers packages, cruise bookings and tours.

Officials said they’re also proud of their engagement with communities and investments in sustainable developments, which are “working to build a better future for the planet.”

“The story of Transat's growth over the past 30 years is a remarkable one.” said Dominique Anglade, Deputy Premier of Quebec, Minister of Economy, Science and Innovation, and Minister Responsible for the Digital Strategy. “Today, Transat is Canada's leading integrated tourism company, and Air Transat is the country's number one leisure carrier.”

“Transat also attracts some 500,000 European travellers each year to Quebec and the rest of Canada, notably from France and the United Kingdom, two major tourism markets.” Anglade continued. “Through its operations, this first-class employer generates substantial economic benefits for all of Quebec.”

Air Transat has been named Best North American Leisure Airline at the Skytrax World Airline Awards from 2012 to 2017. They also were named one of the Best Corporate Citizens in Canada from 2014 to 2017 by the research firm Corporate Knights.

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