Brazil gained its first new trans-continental air link of 2026 when Air Transat flight TS 272 landed at Rio de Janeiro/Galeão at 07:11 local time on 5 February, 51 minutes behind schedule after departing Toronto the previous evening. A sister flight from Montreal commences later the same day, giving Canada its only nonstop connection from Quebec to Brazil.
The leisure-focused carrier will operate the Toronto route twice weekly (Wednesdays and Saturdays) and the Montreal rotation once weekly (Thursdays) with 332-seat Airbus A330 aircraft. Combined, the services add more than 1,800 weekly seats to the Canada-Brazil market—a capacity jump of roughly 12 % according to OAG schedules—just as Rio prepares for its peak Carnival traffic later this month.
![Air Transat’s First Toronto & Montreal Flights Touch Down in Rio, Opening New Canada–Brazil Corridor]()
Corporate-mobility teams see immediate upside: Canadian mining, engineering and clean-tech firms with projects in Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo can now bypass time-consuming São Paulo connections. Air Transat has also signed an interline agreement with Brazil’s GOL, allowing single-ticket access to 80 domestic destinations. Introductory round-trip fares are advertised at C$ 799, undercutting Air Canada’s São Paulo services by nearly 20 %.
From a duty-of-care perspective, travel managers should note that Galeão’s Terminal 2 now offers dedicated crew and premium-passenger immigration counters, potentially offsetting the slightly longer ground-transport time into downtown compared with Santos Dumont Airport.
Analysts view the launch as a bellwether for renewed North-South long-haul growth following Brazil’s recovery in inbound arrivals, which surpassed 6 million visitors in 2025 for the first time since the pandemic.
The leisure-focused carrier will operate the Toronto route twice weekly (Wednesdays and Saturdays) and the Montreal rotation once weekly (Thursdays) with 332-seat Airbus A330 aircraft. Combined, the services add more than 1,800 weekly seats to the Canada-Brazil market—a capacity jump of roughly 12 % according to OAG schedules—just as Rio prepares for its peak Carnival traffic later this month.
Corporate-mobility teams see immediate upside: Canadian mining, engineering and clean-tech firms with projects in Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo can now bypass time-consuming São Paulo connections. Air Transat has also signed an interline agreement with Brazil’s GOL, allowing single-ticket access to 80 domestic destinations. Introductory round-trip fares are advertised at C$ 799, undercutting Air Canada’s São Paulo services by nearly 20 %.
From a duty-of-care perspective, travel managers should note that Galeão’s Terminal 2 now offers dedicated crew and premium-passenger immigration counters, potentially offsetting the slightly longer ground-transport time into downtown compared with Santos Dumont Airport.
Analysts view the launch as a bellwether for renewed North-South long-haul growth following Brazil’s recovery in inbound arrivals, which surpassed 6 million visitors in 2025 for the first time since the pandemic.
Source: Airportia / ADVFN press release
