Air Canada's interest in buying rival Transat for about $520 million is getting positive feedback from industry watchers and stock traders The two companies say Air Canada — the country's largest airline — would pay a premium price of $13 per share for Transat, the Montreal-based owner of Air Transat and numerous vacation travel businesses McGill University professor Karl Moore said a combination of the two companies would help grow Air Canada Vacations The travel agency competes with Transat, WestJet and others in the leisure travel market A deal that keeps Transat's head office in Montreal would also be greeted favourably by politicians in Quebec Onex Corp. announced Monday that it has a friendly deal to buy WestJet Airlines Ltd. — Canada's second-largest airline company — for about $3.5 billion Moore said the level of competition that Air Canada faces from WestJet will increase with the financial resources of Onex Air Canada chief executive Calin Rovinescu said a combination with Transat represents a great opportunity for both companies