Fewer bookings due to Transavia flight cancellations, travel industry suffers

The travel industry is suffering above all from the recent flight cancellations at Transavia. Both the airline itself and travel organization Sunweb see this reflected in a lower number of bookings. "Of course, people are a bit more reserved again. The coronavirus convulsion is back a bit," a spokesman for the struggling airline said of the new uncertainty.

Sunweb says there's always a small drop in bookings after the May holidays, but now it's bigger than usual. "We have a feeling that this is related to the cancellations at Transavia. People are unsettled, we also notice that from the many questions we get on the phone," says a spokesperson.

Competitor Corendon sees no major abnormalities in booking behavior, apart from a small drop due to inflation. The industry association ANVR speaks of a usually quieter phase after the May holidays, which will soon return to a busy last-minute season. "From this we expect a lot, there is still enough capacity," said a spokesperson. According to the association, bookings have still been strong recently, partly because of the bad weather in the Netherlands.

Transavia has too little capacity for the busy spring season, partly due to the delayed arrival of leased aircraft and needed repairs. As a result, the KLM subsidiary already had to cancel the flights of thousands of travelers. The airline announced on Tuesday how many flights will go out in June. In addition, KLM announced on Thursday that in a few months it will also have to cut the flights of KLM Cityhopper, the unit that flies only within Europe.

Prijsvrij Vakanties and D-Reizen, part of the same company, also noted that many people are "getting restless" about Transavia's problems and want to rebook. The capacity problems have affected 156 bookings in the travel agencies. In 98 bookings for a total of 256 people, the trips were canceled altogether because no alternatives were available.