Peter Legro, chairman of KLM subsidiary Transavia, says that the spiralling reduction in European air fares and the resultant erosion of yields has forced it to make a bottom-up study of its operations, to cut costs.
"We are looking at every aspect of the airline, from the in-flight product to our contracts with vendors, under a cost evaluation programme which we've dubbed 'D-Check'," says Legro. He says that the study will be completed by 1997, after which an action plan will be drawn up for implementation in 1997.
The airline, which operates a fleet of Boeing 737-300s and 757s, will introduce the first of at least eight next-generation 737-800s in April 1998. Legro says that it intends to maintain a core fleet of 737-300s, but may sell or return to lessors its older non-electronic flight-instrumentation system-equipped models.
Source: Flight International
