Air Transat

Air Transat is Canada's leisure long-haul specialist, flying from Montreal and Toronto on a seasonal rhythm: across the Atlantic to Europe through the summer, south to the Caribbean and Mexico when the Canadian winter sets in. It is a holiday airline with a widebody backbone, built around full flights and long sectors.

The fleet is all Airbus, and the cabin story is Club. Air Transat's front cabin is a small block of wider recliner seats, not a lie-flat business class, priced closer to a premium economy than to what the flag carriers charge at the front. The A321-200s skip it entirely and fly single-class; the long-range A321LR and every A330 carry it.

The A321-200s are single-class economy in two densities, and the lighter fit is worth hoping for on a four-hour run to the islands. The A321LR is the aircraft that lets a single-aisle jet cross the Atlantic in this fleet, with a few rows of two-by-two Club recliners ahead of a long economy cabin.

The A330s split on economy width, and it is the most useful fact in the fleet: the A330-200s run economy nine abreast in a three-by-three-by-three layout, a snug fit for the type, while the A330-300 keeps the classic two-by-four-by-two. Club on every A330 is the same small two-row cabin of two-by-two-by-two recliners.

Club is a comfortable way to cross an ocean without a business-class fare: a wider chair with deeper recline, in a cabin small enough to stay calm on a full holiday flight. Judged as a premium recliner it delivers; anyone expecting a bed should read the seat map first and adjust either the expectation or the booking. On the A321LR the same product rides a single-aisle jet, which keeps the front cabin especially intimate.

Economy is built for volume. On the nine-abreast A330-200s the seat runs narrower than the Airbus norm, so seat choice does more work there than anywhere else Air Transat flies; the A330-300 gives shoulders a rest. The service model is leisure through and through, with the extras sold rather than bundled.

Before paying for a widebody seat, work out which A330 is on the route, because the -200 and -300 offer different economy widths at the same fare. On the -300, the window pairs of the eight-abreast cabin suit couples, with no middle seat to negotiate; on the -200s, an aisle seat or one of the rows sold with extra legroom softens the density. Club's two rows are closely matched, so take the front row to be first off or the second to sit further from the galley.

On the A321s the bulkhead and the rows by the doors carry the legroom, and a handful of window seats sit beside a blank panel or a badly aligned frame, which the seat notes cover seat by seat. On the A321LR, the over-wing exits are the economy pick for the crossing, fixed recline being the price of the space.