Transavia will not seek to replace its Munich base, which it is closing later this year, with another overseas base and will instead focus on its home markets of France and the Netherlands, its head of network planning Jeroen Erdman discloses.
Speaking on a panel at the Routes Europe conference in Belfast today, Erdman says that a strategic shift by parent company Air France-KLM means Transavia was changing from being used for "conquering Europe" to a "domestic" operator for "making money".
"We decided we didn’t see the short-term financial gain in operating Munich," he says, adding: "We won’t be opening new bases".
The Dutch carrier opened its Munich base in March 2016 but is closing it in October when it will serve the German city from Amsterdam and Eindhoven only, with Dutch-based aircraft.
Erdman says that only "a few percent" of Transavia’s total traffic is made up of transit passengers. Asked if Transavia could operate long-haul, low-cost flights, Erdman says that Amsterdam and Eindhoven do not have a large enough catchment to allow for such an operation.
"For the moment we focus on the [European] point-to-point and everything we get from feeding we just see it as a bonus," he says. Erdman says that developing its French long-haul, low-cost unit Boost is a prioity for Air France-KLM.
He says that as a "former charter airline", Transavia is "used to moving around capacity, so in that respect we can adapt to uncertainty", but says that one challenge it is experiencing at the moment is slot constraints in the Netherlands.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
