is a
Netherlands based
Low-cost Airline operating as an independent part of the
Air France -
KLM group.
Schiphol International Airport (AMS),
Amsterdam is its main base while
Rotterdam Airport (RTM) is its secondary hub. transavia.com chiefly operates scheduled and charter services to leisure destinations.
The airline was established in the end of 1965 as Transavia Limburg. The name was changed in 1966 in Transavia Holland and it began operations on
17 November 1966. In 1986, the name was changed to Transavia Airlines and 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 2000's, Transavia was primarily a charter airline with a
Low-cost Airline subsidiary called
Basiq Air . However, to strengthen its brand, Basiq Air and the Transavia charter arm were combined under the transavia.com name on
1 January 2005 .
transavia.com's scheduled network covers 19 destinations based on Amsterdam and Rotterdam, while charter services are flown to over 60 destinations in:
Europe
Transavia
The transavia.com fleet consists of the following aircraft (at November
2005 ):
The airline has disposed of a large number of aircraft operated earlier including 16
Boeing 737-300 and 4
Boeing 757 aircraft.
Seasonally, transavia.com leases out 737 aircraft to operators such as
Sun Country Airlines ,
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and
SpiceJet .
This winter, five 737-800 aircraft will be leased to Sun Country and Indian airline SpiceJet will be leasing two 737-800s. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, who owns transavia.com, is leasing two 737-800s.
