Transavia
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| Founded | 1966 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commenced operations | 17 November 1966 | ||||||
| Operating bases | Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Rotterdam The Hague Airport Eindhoven Airport Groningen Airport Eelde Maastricht Aachen Airport Paris-Orly Airport (Transavia France) | ||||||
| Subsidiaries | Transavia France (40%) | ||||||
| Fleet size | 32 | ||||||
| Destinations | 88 | ||||||
| Parent company | Air France-KLM | ||||||
| Headquarters | Schiphol Airport Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands | ||||||
| Website | www.transavia.com | ||||||
Transavia Airlines C.V., 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; Rotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM) and Eindhoven Airport (EIN) are its secondary hubs. In France, Paris-Orly Airport is the main base of its French affiliate. Transavia.com chiefly operates scheduled and charter services to leisure destinations. It is headquartered in the TransPort Building at Schiphol Airport in Haarlemmermeer.
History
Spring 1966: At the private home of Captain "Pete" (Huntley Gordon) Holmes (31.8.1916 – 14.4.2006) the first brainstorming about establishing a 2nd *charter* company in The Netherlands began together with his longtime friend,the American "Slick" (Chalmers H.) Goodlin (2.1.1923 – 20.10.2005). Slick Goodlin had recently bought the dormant small company Transavia Limburg, based in Maastricht and had 3 DC6's available. The Dutch Government needed to be approached in order to obtain an operating license for the airline, out of Amsterdam Airport and for those DC6's.
At that stage John Block, meanwhile a former member of the Martinair Holland management was willing to take that on. He succeeded, the license was issued on 14th November,1966 and 2 days later on 16.11.1966 the first (maiden) commercial flight, flown by Captain Pete Holmes – Amsterdam/Napels/Amsterdam – 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 3-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 6 carefully selected & trained young women.
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.
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, which operates ten 737-800s. A Danish unit, Transavia Denmark, based at Copenhagen was operated until the end of April 2011, but was shut down after failing to meet expectations.
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, Netherlands.[2] Transavia.com moved into the new building on 3 May 2010 with about 400 employees.[3]
Previously Transavia's head office was in the Building Triport III at Schiphol Airport.[4][5][6]
Destinations
Fleet
Current Fleet
As of April 2013, the Transavia fleet (excluding Transavia France) consists of the following aircraft. All aircraft are fitted with performance-enhancing winglets.[7]
| Aircraft | In Fleet | Passengers (Economy) |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boeing 737–700 | 10 | 149 | |
| Boeing 737–800 | 23 | 186 | |
| Total | 33 |
Fleet development
Over the years, Transavia operated the following aircraft types in its mainline fleet:[8]
|
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).[8]
On-board service
Transavia.com offers the "Selection on Board" buy on board service offering food and drinks for purchase.[10]
Luggage policy
Commencing 5 April 2011, transavia.com introduced fees for hold luggage. In addition, the rules for hand luggage have changed also. With effect from 5 April 2011, the maximum allowable weight for hand luggage has increased from 5 kg to 10 kg.[11]
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.[12]
- 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 maingear first. On touchdown the nosegear broke out of the doghouse. After gliding over the runway for approximately 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.[13] The aircraft returned to service after repairs.
See also
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References
- ^ "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"
- ^ "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.
- ^ "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"
- ^ http://www.transavia.com/corporate/en/organisation/fleet
- ^ a b Transavia fleet list at airfleets.net
- ^ http://www.rzjets.net/aircraft/?parentid=1302&typeid=1&frstatus=3
- ^ "Selection on board." transavia.com. Retrieved on 16 February 2011.
- ^ "Why is transavia.com changing its luggage policy?" (PDF). Transavia.com. Retrieved 9 March 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
