Air Transat takes off with 1,392% ROAS at peak season

Air Transat is Canada’s leading leisure airline, flying to roughly 60 destinations across more than 25 countries in the Americas and Europe. Serving about 5 million passengers each year, the brand is known for holiday travel, which makes late November especially important.

Travel Tuesday (the Tuesday after Black Friday and Cyber Monday) has become one of the busiest booking days of the year. Travelers are actively searching for winter escapes and summer getaways, and competition across airlines intensifies quickly.

With the holiday high season approaching, Air Transat was looking for a way to increase bookings while maintaining, or improving, return on ad spend (ROAS). The team also wanted a product that would simplify campaign management during a concentrated promotional window. 

Working with their Microsoft Advertising account management team, Air Transat decided to expand their Performance Max (PMax) use for other regions after early success within their UK account.

PMax offered a new way to scale during this critical peak booking window. The team launched in September 2025 so the campaign could ramp ahead of Travel Tuesday traffic and promotions. They structured PMax activity around grouped destination routes, allowing the team to tailor messaging by market and moment.

Multiple PMax campaigns were organized by region, with asset groups used to flex between always‑on route coverage, priority destinations, and seasonal promotions, ensuring relevance across markets without adding operational complexity.

To get ready, they focused on a few important steps...

• Launch early to allow for learning: Going live months before peak season gave the team time to gather performance data and adjust before holiday demand spiked.
• Built region‑based PMax campaigns: This balanced broad route coverage with the flexibility to spotlight key destinations and promotions.
• Prioritize high-value bookings: PMax optimizes toward the conversion goals defined by the advertiser. By clarifying which booking actions mattered most, Air Transat ensured growth was tied directly to revenue.
• Keep ROAS front and center: ROAS guided decisions throughout the ramp-up period, keeping growth disciplined.
• Review results consistently: Frequent check-ins during the early weeks helped confirm the campaign was progressing in the right direction before demand increased.
• Maintain shared visibility: Transparent reporting ensured everyone stayed aligned as performance evolved.

By the time bookings started to pick up, the campaign had direction, data, and a clear goal to guide it.

When holiday travel demand peaked, PMax delivered 1,392% ROAS, complementing 1,055% ROAS from Search ad campaigns during the same period.

During the high-season window, PMax accounted for 26% of total account conversions and drove 23% of total revenue. Nearly a quarter of bookings and revenue during the busiest period of the year were tied to the campaign launched months earlier, adding lift alongside already solid Search performance.