Transavia scrapping 124 summer flights at Rotterdam The Hague airport
Transavia’s woes are extending into the summer vacation. KLM’s low-cost subsidiary will cancel 124 flights at Rotterdam The Hague Airport in the summer, amounting to around 20,000 seats, slot coordinator Hugo Thomassen of Airport Coordination Netherlands told De Telegraaf.
The airline previously hoped to cancel flights only until the end of June. Now, it’s canceling flights until the end of October. It is unclear how many travelers are affected. Empty seats can simply be removed from the market.
According to Transavia, this is a quite common combination of a “commercial and operational” adjustment caused by delays in major equipment maintenance, among other things. “Our biggest priority is a stable operation. By taking measures as quickly as possible, we minimize the impact on passengers and employees,” a spokesperson told the newspaper. “Because we intervene in time, we, together with our partners, manage to find an alternative for almost all passengers affected.”
Transavia already scrapped tens of thousands of seats from the market in April, May, and June due to a setback with aircraft maintenance. Several of its Boeings had to remain in the Czech Republic and Turkey for longer than planned for maintenance, leaving it with too few planes to fly its regular timetable.
In addition to its current maintenance issues, Transavia is also facing future problems. Schiphol Airport’s plan to ban night flights will be a massive blow to the low-cost airline’s revenue model. One way Transavia keeps ticket prices low is by flying at unpopular hours.
