This week: easyJet and Jet2 confirm Thomas Cook slot purchases; Transavia to open Montpellier base; American and Qantas implement JV; passenger demand remains sluggish – IATA; and Cebu Pacific firms A330-900 order.
Although the Air France-KLM Group low-cost brand has previously served the UK market from the Netherlands, the new links from Paris Orly into England and Scotland’s capital cities by its Transavia France operation represent its first ever flights between France and the UK.
Dutch low-cost carrier Transavia is well known in its home market in the Netherlands and in France, where it has established a Transavia France division, but it is now seeking to grow in other European countries as it aims to establish itself as a pan-European airline brand.
Alongside Schiphol, Rotterdam/The Hague and Eindhoven in the Netherlands, and Paris Orly, Nantes and Lyon in France, Munich Airport will now be the seventh operational home base for Transavia. The airport in Bavaria serves close to 40 million passengers annually and is the second largest airport in Germany after Frankfurt, both being major hubs for Lufthansa and the Star Alliance.
Speaking at the Routes Europe Strategy Summit in Aberdeen, a panel including representatives from Transavia France and Vueling as well as Budapest Airport and OAG, discussed low-cost carriers and their position in the European market.
The agreements cover the leasing of two B737-700s and two B737-800s with respective capacities of 148 and 189 seats. The aircraft will be operated by Air Transat on its Mexico and Caribbean Sun destinations routes and marks the completion of Transat’s narrow-body internalisation plan for winter 2014–2015, begun in July 2013.
