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Transavia

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This article is about the Dutch airline. For the Australian aircraft manufacturer, see Transavia Corporation.
Not to be confused with TransAsia Airways or TransAVIAexport Airlines.
Transavia
IATA ICAO Call sign
HV TRA TRANSAVIA
Commenced operations17 November 1966; 58 years ago (1966-11-17) [1]
Operating bases
Frequent-flyer programFlying Blue
SubsidiariesTransavia France (4.5%)
Fleet size47 (2024)
Destinations96[2]
Parent companyAir France-KLM
HeadquartersHaarlemmermeer, Netherlands
RevenueIncrease €1.744 billion (2019)[3]
Operating incomeDecrease €131 million (2019)[3]
Websitewww.transavia.com

Transavia Airlines B.V., trading as Transavia and formerly branded as transavia.com, is a Dutch low-cost airline and a wholly owned subsidiary of KLM and therefore part of the Air France–KLM group. Its main base is Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and it has other bases at Rotterdam The Hague Airport and Eindhoven Airport.

History

[edit]
Transavia Sud Caravelle at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport in June 1972
Transavia Airbus A300 in 1976
Transavia Boeing 757-200 in 2001

Early years

[edit]

The first brainstorming sessions about starting a second charter company in the Netherlands, after Martinair, started in spring 1966, when the American Chalmers Goodlin met with captain Pete Holmes. "Slick" Goodlin had recently bought the dormant small company Transavia Limburg, based in Maastricht, which had three DC-6's available. The Dutch government needed to be approached in order to obtain an operating license for the airline, both in order to be allowed to operate out of Amsterdam Airport, and for these DC-6s.

At that stage John Block, a former member of the Martinair Holland management, was willing to take that on. He succeeded, the license was issued on 14 November 1966 and two days later on 16 November 1966 the airline's first commercial flight – Amsterdam/Naples/Amsterdam – was completed; flown by Captain Pete Holmes, on board were the Dutch Ballet Orchestra and the Dutch Dance Theatre. This was the first flight with the new name of Transavia Holland.

The company found offices at the old Schiphol Airport, Hangar 7 and the fledgling's financier Slick Goodlin appointed the three-pronged management: Commercial Director J.N. Block, Director Operations H.G. Holmes, and Technical Director Kees de Blok. Some of the first employees were pilots John Schurman (Canadian), Hans Steinbacher & Pim Sierks (Dutch), Chief Stewardess Willy Holmes-Spoelder and her stewardesses: Senior Stewardess Wil Dammers and six carefully selected and trained young women.

The first of fourteen secondhand Sud Caravelle twin-jet airliners to be operated by Transavia was delivered in summer 1969 and the type remained in service with the airline until being replaced by further deliveries of Boeing 737s in 1976.

Development since the 1980s

[edit]

Building up the airline from scratch, ten years later Transavia had a marketshare of 45% of the Dutch holiday market and became the main competitor of Martinair. In 1986, the Transavia Holland brand was changed into Transavia Airlines. It was the first airline to take advantage of the first open skies agreement signed between the UK and Dutch governments. Transavia started operating its first scheduled service on the Amsterdam to London Gatwick route on 26 October 1986. In 1992, Transavia was operating code sharing flights between Amsterdam and London Gatwick on behalf of Continental Airlines with these services providing passenger feed for Continental nonstop flights between London and New York City (via Newark Airport), Houston and Denver.[4]

During 1991, the airline's major shareholder, Nedlloyd, sold its 80% holding to KLM. In 1998, Transavia was the first foreign airline to operate domestic services in Greece following a change in Greek aviation law. In June 2003, KLM acquired the remaining 20% of Transavia, making it 100% KLM owned. The subsequent merger of Air France and KLM made Transavia a wholly owned subsidiary of Air France-KLM.

In the early 2000s, Transavia was primarily a charter airline with a low-cost airline subsidiary called Basiq Air. To strengthen its brand image, the two were combined under the transavia.com domain name on 1 January 2005.

Transavia had a French unit, Transavia France, based at Paris-Orly, but it is now fully owned by Air France. A Danish unit, Transavia Denmark, based at Copenhagen, operated from 2008 until April 2011 when it was shut down after failing to meet expectations.

A strike was organised by Air France pilots in September 2014, in protest against the Air France-KLM group's increased focus on the development of Transavia, whose pilots were being paid less than those of Air France.[5]

By early 2015, Transavia received a new corporate design dropping the ".com" from its public appearance and changed its primary colors from white/green/blue to white/green.[6] The airline is now to be positioned as Air France-KLM's low-cost brand for the Netherlands and France.[7]

In February 2017, Transavia announced that it would shut down its base at Munich Airport by late October 2017 after only a year of service due to a change in their business strategy and negative economic outlook.[8]

In December 2019, Transavia announced the launch of its base at Brussels Airport, initially operating nine routes from the airport.[9]

In December 2021, after a delay due to the coronavirus, the base at Brussels Airport was opened. Transavia will station one aircraft at the Belgian airport.[10]

Post-COVID developments and fleet renewal

[edit]

Like other leisure airlines, Transavia was greatly impacted by the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, and the worldwide travel disruptions that followed. Transavia noted a loss of 299 million euros in 2020. From 2021 onwards, the airline graduatly started to recover from the crisis, as international air travel started to recover again.

In December 2021, Transavia announced that the fleet is to be renewed with Airbus A320neo family aircraft. Together with its parent company Air France-KLM, an order was placed for 100 aircraft with 60 additional options. On 19 December 2023, the first Airbus A321neo aircraft was delivered which entered service with the airline some days later.[11]

Corporate affairs

[edit]

Head office

[edit]
The TransPort Building houses the head offices of Transavia and Martinair.
Logo during the Transavia Airlines branding
Logo during the transavia.com branding

Transavia has its head office in the TransPort Building, Schiphol East,[12] on the grounds of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands.[13] Transavia moved into the new building on 3 May 2010 with about 400 employees.[14] Previously the head office was in the Building Triport III at Schiphol Airport.[15][16][17]

Ownership and structure

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Transavia Airlines B.V. is 100% owned by KLM, which in turn is owned by Air France-KLM; however, Transavia is run as an independent operation.[citation needed] It holds a 4.49% interest in the French airline transavia France (the remaining 95.51% is owned by Air France), which operates in the French market.[citation needed] Transavia France also operates under the brand name of Transavia, with an identical business model, website, and image.[18]

Business model

[edit]

Transavia operates as a low-cost carrier with a single class of cabin. The airline offers the "Selection on Board" buy on board service offering food and drinks for purchase.[19] Commencing 5 April 2011, Transavia introduced fees for hold luggage and changed the rules for hand luggage, with the maximum allowable weight for hand luggage increased from 5 kg to 10 kg.[20]

[edit]

The financials for both parts of the Transavia brand (Transavia Netherlands and Transavia France) are fully incorporated in the published annual accounts of their ultimate parent, Air France-KLM. Results reported for the Transavia brand are (figures for financial years ending 31 December):[21]

Turnover[a]
(€m)[22] 		Net
profit/loss
(€m) 		Number of
passengers
(m)[23] 		Passenger
load factor
(%)[24] 		Number of
aircraft
(Transavia)
 Number of
aircraft
(Transavia
France) 		Number of
aircraft
(total)[b] 		Notes/
sources
2011 −5 6.3 86.5 30 8 38 [25][26]
2012 889 −1 7.6 88.6 31 8 39 [26]
2013 984 −23 8.9 90.1 30 11 41 [27]
2014 1,056 −36 9.9 89.8 31 14 45 [28]
2015 1,100 −35 10.8 89.9 32 21 53 [29]
2016 1,218 0 13.2 89.2 37 26 63 [30]
2017 1,436 81 14.8 90.6 39 29 73 [31]
2018 1,611 139 15.8 92.0 40 34 74 [32]
2019 1,744 131 16.6 92.2 42 38 80 [33]
2020 606 −299 5.2 73.8 40 40 80 [34]
2021 1,012 −149 8.8 74.7 39 54 93 [35]
2022 2,219 −104 18.3 85.2 39 60 99 [36]
2023 2,640 −96 21.4 89.1 45 72 117 [37]

In 2013 and 2015 Transavia had 2,050 and 2,400 employees respectively.[27][29]

Destinations

[edit]
Countries in which Transavia operates as of September 2024[38][39][40]
Main article: List of Transavia destinations

Codeshare agreements

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Transavia has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:[41]

Fleet

[edit]
Transavia Boeing 737-700 wearing the former livery
Transavia Boeing 737-800 wearing the current livery introduced in 2015

Current fleet

[edit]

As of December 2024, Transavia (excluding Transavia France) operates the following registered aircraft:[43]

Transavia Netherlands fleet
Aircraft Type In service Orders Passengers Notes
Airbus A320neo — 80 186 Order with 60 options to be shared with KLM and Transavia France.[44][45]
To replace Boeing 737-800.[46][44]
Airbus A321neo 7 232[citation needed]
Boeing 737-800 40 — 189 To be replaced by Airbus A320neo family.
Total 47 80

Fleet development

[edit]

Previously, during the busy summer season, Transavia would regularly lease additional 737 aircraft from Sun Country Airlines, a US airline based in Eagan, Minnesota. During the slower winter season, which corresponds to Sun Country's busy season, Sun Country leases several planes from Transavia.[47][48] A similar agreement was also made with the Brazilian, Rio de Janeiro based low-cost airline Gol Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes (GOL Airlines).[49] This reciprocal arrangement allows both airlines to balance their fleets to reflect seasonal demand. These agreements, however, seem to have been terminated around the year 2020, based on the fleet activity of the airlines.[citation needed] Transavia does in the present day, when needed, wet-lease aircraft to operate on their behalf if they are unable to meet the capacity demand at the time.[50] The most common reasons for Transavia to have to wet-lease is that several aircraft are grounded (AOG) due to unscheduled maintenance usually related to damage incurred during ground handling or scheduled maintenance which takes longer than expected. These issues often also result in the airline needing to cancel several flights.[51] [52]

Transavia has mainly operated models of the Boeing 737 family throughout its history. However, Air France-KLM announced in December 2021 that it had placed an order for up to 100 aircraft of the Airbus A320neo family, with options for 60 additional aircraft. These will be replacing the entire Boeing 737 fleet of Transavia, Transavia France, and KLM.

Historical fleet

[edit]

Over the years, Transavia has operated the following aircraft types in its mainline fleet:

Transavia historical fleet
Aircraft Total Introduced Retired
Airbus A300B2 1 1976 1977
Airbus A310-300 1 1998 1999
Airbus A320-200 4 2013 2015
Boeing 707-320 4 1968 1982
Boeing 737-200 21 1974 1995
Boeing 737-300 16 1986 2002
Boeing 737-400 1 1997 1997
Boeing 737-700 10 2003 2024
Boeing 757-200 8 1992 2004
Boeing 757-300 2 2003 2003
BAe 146-200 1 1997 1997
Sud Aviation Caravelle[53] 15 1969 1976

Additional aircraft types were part of the fleet in small numbers and only for short-term periods.[citation needed]

Accidents and incidents

[edit]

No fatalities or complete loss of aircraft have occurred on Transavia flights. In 1997 two incidents occurred with substantial damage to the aircraft:

  • On 24 December 1997, Transavia Airlines Flight 462, a Boeing 757-200 flying from Gran Canaria to Amsterdam, was seriously damaged during landing. The aircraft landed in strong, gusty winds and touched down hard with its right main gear first. On touchdown the nose gear doghouse collapsed, inflicting serious damage on some electrical and electronic systems and control cables. After sliding over the runway for approximately 3 km, the aircraft came to rest in the grass beside the runway. The plane was evacuated successfully, and no fatalities or serious injuries occurred.[55] The aircraft returned to service after repairs.
  • On 6 September 2019, Transavia Airlines Flight 1041 attempted to take off from Taxiway D instead of Runway 18C at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Airtraffic controllers ordered the aircraft to stop immediately. No injuries were reported.[56][importance?]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ "passenger revenues" / "Total sales"
  2. ^ at year end

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Endres, Gunter; Edwards, Graham (28 November 2006). Jane's Airline Recognition Guide. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-113729-7.
  2. ^ "Transavia Airlines on ch-aviation". ch-aviation. Retrieved 2023-11-09.
  3. ^ a b "Full Year 2019 Press Release" (PDF). Air France-KLM. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
  4. ^ "Continental Airlines Summer 1992 Route Map".
  5. ^ "Air France strike to continue another week". The Local: France. 19 September 2014. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
  6. ^ Dorien Vrieling (10 March 2015). "[Designpanel] Rebranding Transavia". MarketingTribune.
  7. ^ "Annual Financial Report 2014" (PDF). Air France-KLM. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 November 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  8. ^ aero.de - "Transavia dissolves base in Munich" (German) 13 February 2017
  9. ^ Liu, Jim (4 December 2019). "Transavia launches Brussels base in S20". routesonline.com.
  10. ^ "Transavia officially announces base in Brussels - Aviation.Direct". 21 December 2021.
  11. ^ "Transavia investeert in geluids en co2 reductie met Airbus - Transavia". 19 December 2023.
  12. ^ " New visiting address Martinair Headquarters[permanent dead link‍]." Martinair. Retrieved on 16 February 2011. "Martinair’s head office will relocate to the new TransPort building at Schiphol East on Friday, June 4, 2010." and "Visiting address Martinair Holland N.V. Piet Guilonardweg 17 1117 EE Schiphol"
  13. ^ "Visiting address and directions." Transavia.com. Retrieved on 7 February 2011. "Piet Guilonardweg 15: TransPort Building 1117 EE Schiphol Airport PO Box 7777, 1118 ZM Schiphol Airport (NL)."
  14. ^ "Proud of our new energy-saving head office." Public Report 2009/2010 Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine. Transavia.com. 8 (8/13). Retrieved on 16 February 2011.
  15. ^ "STCC TRANSAVIA." TUIfly. Retrieved on 16 February 2011. "transavia.com Westelijke Randweg 3, building Triport III 1118 CR Schiphol Airport"
  16. ^ "General Conditions of Passage Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine." Transavia.com. 28/28 Retrieved on 16 February 2011. "Address for visitors: transavia.com Westelijke Randweg 3, building Triport III 1118 CR Schiphol Airport"
  17. ^ "Annual Report 2004/2005." Transavia.com. 28/28. Retrieved on 16 February 2011. "transavia.com Westelijke Randweg 3 P.O. Box 7777 1118 ZM Schiphol Centrum The Netherlands"
  18. ^ "Organization". Transavia. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
  19. ^ "Selection on board." transavia.com. Retrieved on 16 February 2011.
  20. ^ "Why is transavia.com changing its luggage policy?" (PDF). Transavia.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
  21. ^ "Annual and semi-annual documents | AIR FRANCE KLM". www.airfranceklm.com. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  22. ^ "Transavia annual passenger revenues 2011-2021". Statista. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  23. ^ "Number of passengers carried by Transavia yearly". Statista. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  24. ^ "Passenger load factor of Transavia between yearly". Statista. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  25. ^ "Financial Year 2011 - press release" (PDF). Air France-KLM. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  26. ^ a b "Registration Document 2012" (PDF). AirFranceKLM. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  27. ^ a b "Registration Document 2013 including the annual financial report" (PDF). Air France-KLM. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  28. ^ "AirfranceKLM Registration Document 2014 including the Annual Financial Report" (PDF). AirfranceKLM. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  29. ^ a b "AirfranceKLM Registration Document 2015 including the Annual Financial Report" (PDF). Air France-KLM. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  30. ^ "AirfranceKLM Registration Document 2016 including the Annual Financial Report" (PDF). AirfranceKLM. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  31. ^ "AirfranceKLM Registration Document 2017 including the Annual Financial Report" (PDF). AirfranceKLM. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  32. ^ "AirfranceKLM Registration Document 2018 including the Annual Financial Report" (PDF). Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  33. ^ "AirfranceKLM Registration Document 2019 including the Annual Financial Report" (PDF). AirfranceKLM. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  34. ^ "AirfranceKLM Registration Document 2020 including the Annual Financial Report" (PDF). AirfranceKLM. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  35. ^ "AirfranceKLM Registration Document 2021 including the Annual Financial Report" (PDF). AirfranceKLM. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  36. ^ "AirfranceKLM Registration Document 2022 including the Annual Financial Report" (PDF). AirfranceKLM. Retrieved October 26, 2023.
  37. ^ "AirfranceKLM Registration Document 2023 including the Annual Financial Report" (PDF). AirFranceKLM. 5 June 2024.
  38. ^ "Transavia Online Booking". Transavia. Retrieved 1 Sep 2024.
  39. ^ "Route map Transavia (TO)". Flightconnections. Retrieved 1 Sep 2024.
  40. ^ "Route map Transavia (HV)". Flightconnections. Retrieved 1 Sep 2024.
  41. ^ "Our Partners". Transavia. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  42. ^ Egerton, Debbie (March 2, 2016). "Delta agreement with Transavia opens new destinations" (Press release). Delta Air Lines. Archived from the original on July 21, 2019. Retrieved August 30, 2023.
  43. ^ "Global Airline Guide 2019 (Part One)". Airliner World (October 2019): 22.
  44. ^ a b "KLM Group chooses Airbus A320neo family for KLM and Transavia's European fleet". KLM Group (Press release). 16 December 2021.
  45. ^ "Transavia verduurzaamt komende jaren vloot met Airbus vliegtuigen". Transavia (Press release) (in Dutch). 16 December 2021.
  46. ^ "Transavia takes delivery of maiden A321neo". ch-aviation.com. 18 December 2023.
  47. ^ "Transavia Airlines PH-HZG (Boeing 737 NG / Max - MSN 28379) | Airfleets aviation".
  48. ^ "The Story of Two Northern Suns: Sunwing and Sun Country – AirlineGeeks.com".
  49. ^ Aeroflap (2019-08-10). "GOL will temporarily lease planes from Transavia". Aeroflap. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
  50. ^ Sipinski, D (21 March 2023). "Netherlands' Transavia to wet lease Avion Express A320". ch-aviation. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
  51. ^ "Transavia canceling 335 flights through June due to plane problems". NL Times. 16 May 2023. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
  52. ^ Harper, Lewis (17 May 2023). "Transavia cancels hundreds more flights as aircraft shortage persists". Flight Global. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
  53. ^ Search results rzjets.net
  54. ^ Incident details from Aviation Safety.net website, visited 22 June 2008.
  55. ^ Incident details from Aviation Safety.net website, visited 13 March 2021.
  56. ^ "Serious incident Boeing 737-8K2 (WL) PH-HSJ, 06 Sep 2019". aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
[edit]

Media related to Transavia at Wikimedia Commons

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