Marc Garneau, Minister of Transport, said the government had 250 days to complete the public interest assessment.Air Canada’s planned acquisition of Transat A.T. Inc. raises issues of public interest and will require additional scrutiny, including the impact on airline competition, before it can be approved, Transport Minister Marc Garneau said on Monday.
The deal between Canada’s largest carrier and Transat, which runs leisure carrier Air Transat, would give Transat a 60-per-cent market share of select trans-Atlantic routes to and from Canada and would require domestic and European regulatory approvals.Mr. Garneau said in a news release issued after the market close that a public-interest assessment would be conducted on the deal with input from the competition commissioner.
Mr. Garneau said the government had 250 days, or until May 2, 2020, to complete the public-interest assessment. AltaCorp analyst Chris Murray said in a recent note he expected the transaction to receive regulatory approval.