Senegal Route Among Six Additions For Transavia France

Transavia France has unveiled six new routes for the northern summer 2023 season, adding connections to destinations in Algeria, Morocco, Senegal and Sweden.

The expansion will see the Air France-KLM Group subsidiary launch two routes apiece from Bastia and Strasbourg, as well as flights from Marseille and Nantes.

From May 3, the LCC will become the sole provider of nonstop flights between Marseille Provence (MRS) and Blaise Diagne International (DSS), which serves Senegal’s capital Dakar. Flights will initially be once a week, rising to 2X-weekly in July and August. 

The market between Marseille and Dakar was previously served by Aigle Azur until July 2019—two months before the now-defunct French carrier filed for bankruptcy.

It was later picked up by Air Senegal, which operated MRS-DSS nonstop between September 2020 and March 2021, before switching to a Dakar-Marseille-Lyon-Dakar routing. Data provided by OAG Schedules Analyser shows the latter route is currently being offered twice a week aboard Airbus A319s and A321s.

Transavia France, an all-Boeing 737-800 operator, already serves Dakar from two destinations in France, running weekly frequencies from Nantes Atlantique (NTE) and Lyon (LYS).

From Strasbourg Airport (SXB) the carrier will offer new routes to two destinations in Algeria, flying twice a week to the country’s capital Algiers (ALG) from July 4, followed by a weekly operation to Constantine (CZL) starting the next day. It will face competition on each route from Algeria’s Tassili Airlines.

Two routes are also being opened from Bastia-Poretta (BIA), linking the city on the French island of Corsica with Oujda (OUD) in northeast Morocco and Gothenburg (GOT) in Sweden. Service will each be weekly, starting on July 5 and July 8 respectively. Transavia France will be the sole operator on both sectors.

Finally, the airline intends to begin another unserved route, connecting Nantes with Constantine. Flights will commence on July 5 and operate twice a week using 737-800s.

The latest data provided by OAG shows that 196 airport pairs will be served by Transavia France during the summer 2023 season, compared with 103 in summer 2019. Total capacity during the upcoming season is scheduled to be about 10.7 million seats, up by about 84% on pre-pandemic levels.