Some 300 sick children take to the air in search of Santa… and find him!

Magical meeting in the sky between Santa's sleigh and an Air Transat Airbus jet

MONTREAL, Dec. 17, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - The elves secretly organized it all. And a few days ago in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, some 300 sick children and their parents took off on an extraordinary flight toward the North Pole aboard an Air Transat Airbus A310. During the flight, Santa Claus himself appeared in the cabin after his reindeer skilfully landed his sleigh on top of the plane in mid-air! And because elves think of everything, the whole event was filmed so that the kids can share their wonderful adventure with their family and friends.

"Once again this year, we were proud to partner with the Children's Wish Foundation in order to enable hundreds of families to forget about illness for this magical day, thanks to the volunteer efforts of Air Transat employees and the generous collaboration of various partners," said Jean-François Lemay, General Manager of Air Transat.   

Air Transat has been a Platinum Partner of the Children's Wish Foundation since 2004. Every year, the company and its employees proudly do their part to brighten the lives of young children who struggle daily with illness. Air Transat has raised more than $5 million for the Foundation since the start of the partnership.

This year's Flight in Search of Santa, held December 10, marked the 10th anniversary of the experience. A video was produced for the occasion that follows the children from the start to the finish of their journey. The children's excitement is palpable at every stage of their experience, reaching a peak as they squeal with delight when Jolly Old Saint Nick arrives aboard the aircraft. To watch the video of the Flight in Search of Santa: http://youtu.be/9opLu-gu5Zo

About Air Transat

Air Transat is Canada's leading holiday travel airline. Every year, it carries some 3 million passengers to nearly 60 destinations in 30 countries aboard its fleet of Boeing narrow-body and Airbus wide-body jets. The company employs approximately 2,000 people. Air Transat is a business unit of Transat A.T. Inc., an integrated international tour operator with more than 60 destination countries and that distributes products in over 50 countries. Air Transat was named Best North American Leisure Airline at the Skytrax annual World Airline Awards, held in July 2014.

Image with caption: "Some 300 sick children take to the air in search of Santa… and find him! (CNW Group/Transat A.T. Inc.)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20141217_C6116_PHOTO_EN_9629.jpg

SOURCE: Transat A.T. Inc.

Debbie Cabana, Advisor, Communications and Media Relations, Transat A.T., 514 987-1616, ext. 4662, [email protected]