Transavia
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| Founded | 1966 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commenced operations | 17 November 1966 | ||||||
| Operating bases | Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Copenhagen Airport (Transavia Denmark: ends 1 April) Eindhoven Airport Paris-Orly Airport (Transavia France) Rotterdam The Hague Airport | ||||||
| Subsidiaries | Transavia Denmark Transavia France | ||||||
| Fleet size | 28 | ||||||
| Destinations | 88 | ||||||
| Parent company | Air France-KLM | ||||||
| Headquarters | Schiphol Airport Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands | ||||||
| Website | www.transavia.com | ||||||
Transavia.com (formerly Transavia Airlines CV, styled as transavia.com and known as Transavia) is a Dutch based low-cost airline operating as an independent part of the Air France-KLM group. Its main base is at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol while Rotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM), Eindhoven Airport (EIN) and Copenhagen Airport (CPH) are its secondary bases. Transavia.com chiefly operates scheduled and charter services to leisure destinations. It is headquartered in the TransPort Building at Schiphol Airport in Haarlemmermeer.
History
The airline was established in the end of 1965 as Transavia Limburg. Johan Nicolaas Block (1929-1994) (former co-founder of Martinair and later founder of Air Holland) bought the 'sleeping' airline Transavia Limburg which he renamed to Transavia and it began operations on 17 November 1966. He built 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,Transavia was changed to 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 the 1990's Transavia attempted to purchase another Dutch operated airline Air Holland of which it failed. Air Holland is now defunct.
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 name on 1 January 2005.
Transavia has a French unit, Transavia France, based at Paris-Orly, and a Danish unit, Transavia Denmark, based at Copenhagen. The French unit operates eight 737-800s and the Danish unit operates one 737-700 and two 737-800s.
Corporate affairs
Head office
Transavia.com has its head office in the TransPort Building, Schiphol East,[1] on the grounds of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Haarlemmermeer, the Netherlands.[2] Transavia.com moved into the new building on 3 May 2010 with about 400 employees.[3]
Construction on the building, which has 10,800 square metres (116,000 sq ft) of lettable space, began on 17 March 2009. Schiphol Group and the architect firm Paul de Ruiter designed the building, while De Vries and Verburg, a firm of Stolwijk, constructed the building.[4] The TransPort Building, developed by Schiphol Real Estate, houses both Transavia.com and Martinair,[5] which moved into TransPort on Friday 4 June 2010.[1] The Dutch Green Building Council awarded its first Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM-NL) certificate to Schiphol Real Estate for building the TransPort Building.[5] In 2011 the United States Green Building Council awarded TransPort the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.[6] A parking facility is located beneath the TransPort building, with parking available by payment.[2]
Previously Transavia's head office was in the Building Triport III at Schiphol Airport.[7][8][9]
Destinations
Fleet
Current Fleet
As of December 2010, the Transavia fleet (excluding Transavia Denmark and Transavia France) consists of the following aircraft. All aircraft are fitted with performance enhancing winglets.
| Aircraft | In Fleet | Orders | Passengers (Economy) |
Average Age (years)[10] | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boeing 737-700 | 10 | 0 | 149 | 8.1 | |
| Boeing 737-800 | 18 | 4 | 186 | 8.1 | Orders due 2011 |
| Total | 28 | 4 | 8.1 |
Fleet development
Over the years, Transavia operated the following aircraft types in its mainline fleet:[11]
|
Additional aircraft types were part of the fleet in small numbers and only for short-term periods: Airbus A300 (1976-77), Airbus A310 (1998-99), Boeing 737-400 (1997), Boeing 757-300 (2003) and BAe 146-200 (1997).[11]
On-board service
Transavia.com offers the "Selection on Board" buy on board service offering food and drinks for purchase.[12]
Incidents and accidents
To date no fatalities or complete loss of aircraft occurred related to Transavia flights. In 1997 two incidents occurred with substantial damage to the aircraft:
- On 8 February 1997, Transavia Airlines Flight 484, a Boeing 737-300 flying from Salzburg to Amsterdam, was damaged en route. The push/pull rod of the elevator broke off, damaging the Boeing 737's rudder and an emergency landing was made at Nuremberg Airport. There were no fatalities, but the FAA issued an Airworthiness Directive after this and a similar incident.[13]
- On 24 December 1997, Transavia Airlines Flight 462, a Boeing 757-200 flying from Las Palmas to Amsterdam was seriously damaged during landing. The aircraft landed in strong, gusty winds and touched down hard with its right maingear first. On touchdown the nosegear broke out of the doghouse. After gliding over the runway for aprox 3 km, it came to rest in the grass beside the runway. Serious damage was inflicted on some electronic systems and control-cables. The plane evacuated successfully and no fatalities occurred.[14] The aircraft returned to service after repairs.
See also
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References
- ^ a b "New visiting address Martinair Headquarters." 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"
- ^ a b "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)."
- ^ "Proud of our new energy-saving head office." Public Report 2009/2010. Transavia.com. 8 (8/13). Retrieved on 16 February 2011.
- ^ "Schiphol Real Estate delivers "TransPort" sustainable office building." (PDF) Schiphol Group. Retrieved on Wednesday February 16, 2011.
- ^ a b "New building Martinair Headquarters." Martinair. Retrieved on 16 February 2011.
- ^ "Schiphol awarded first LEED Platinum certification for sustainable construction in the Netherlands." Schiphol Group. 17 January 2011. Retrieved on 16 February 2011.
- ^ "STCC TRANSAVIA." TUIfly. Retrieved on 16 February 2011. "transavia.com Westelijke Randweg 3, building Triport III 1118 CR Schiphol Airport"
- ^ "General Conditions of Passage." Transavia.com. 28/28 Retrieved on 16 February 2011. "Address for visitors: transavia.com Westelijke Randweg 3, building Triport III 1118 CR Schiphol Airport"
- ^ "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"
- ^ Transavia fleet list at planespotters.net
- ^ a b Transavia fleet list at airfleets.net
- ^ "Selection on board." transavia.com. Retrieved on 16 February 2011.
- ^ Incident details from Aviation Safety.net website, visited June 22, 2008
- ^ Incident details from Aviation Safety.net website, visited June 22, 2008
External links
