Air Transat to make fourth humanitarian flight to Haiti

Carrier continues its efforts to support the Haitian people

MONTREAL, Feb. 15 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Transat is continuing its efforts to support the Haitian people by making a fourth humanitarian flight to Haiti on Tuesday, February 16. An Airbus A310-300 wide-body jet carrying some 13 tonnes of medical supplies, food and other materials will take off from Montreal for Port-au-Prince at 3 a.m. Tuesday.

Some 150 volunteers from the Canadian International Development Agency, the Canadian Medical Assistance Team, the Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sherbrooke, the Centre for International Studies and Cooperation, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Oxfam-Québec, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and SOS Children's Villages will also be part of this humanitarian mission taking place with the support of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.

Some 200 people, including Haitian orphans, will be aboard the return flight, scheduled to land in Montreal at 3 p.m. the same day. Specialists from the Service d'intervention d'urgence du Centre du Québec and Air Transat employee volunteers will be on the plane to accompany the children and see to their well-being while in transit and upon arrival.

"Our employees and our partners wanted to continue providing human and material support to help the Haitian people, who have been suffering such hardship for more than a month now," said Air Transat President and Chief Executive Officer Allen B. Graham.

Air Transat operated similar humanitarian flights on January 20 and 27 as well as on February 3, using an Airbus A330 with fully loaded cargo hold and cabin. The airline has carried more than 100 tonnes of material to Haiti since the January 12 earthquake.

About Air Transat

Air Transat is Canada's leading holiday travel airline. It carries some 3 million passengers annually to nearly 60 destinations in 25 countries. Air Transat has a fleet of 18 Airbus A330s and A310s. The company employs approximately 2,000 people. Air Transat is a subsidiary of Transat A.T. Inc., an integrated international tour operator with more than 60 destination countries and that distributes products in over 50 countries.

For further information: Jacques Bouchard, Manager, Media Relations, [phone], ext. 4662, [email protected]; Source: Air Transat, www.airtransat.com