Dutch carrier, Transavia is to open a new international base in Germany as it seeks to strengthen its position as one of Europe’s growing low-cost carriers. Alongside its existing activities in the Netherlands and French markets dominated by its parent organisation Air France-KLM, the carrier will ambitiously grow into Lufthansa’s backyard with almost 90 additional weekly flights from Munich Airport to 18 destinations in nine countries.
Earlier this year, Transavia, a household name in the Netherlands for nearly 50 years, presented new ambitious goals for the future. Speaking at the Strategy Summit at this year’s Routes Europe in Aberdeen, Scotland earlier this year David Sandier, Vice President, Network and Revenue Management, Transavia revealed the carrier’s ambitions to be the leading low-cost airline in Europe, with growth both within the Netherlands and outside of our home market.
“I’m proud to have the opportunity to officially announce our arrival at Munich Airport. This is proof that we are delivering on our promises,” said Mattijs ten Brink, Chief Executive Officer, Transavia at the formal launch of the new base.
Alongside Schiphol, Rotterdam/The Hague and Eindhoven in the Netherlands, and Paris Orly, Nantes and Lyon in France, Munich Airport will now be the seventh operational home base for Transavia. The airport in Bavaria serves close to 40 million passengers annually and is the second largest airport in Germany after Frankfurt, both being major hubs for Lufthansa and the Star Alliance.
“We see a clear demand for our service in this area. Transavia sets the tone in hospitality, digital services, accessibility and kindness and offers travellers in Bavaria numerous new travel options, from spontaneous getaways to business travels. And all at very affordable fares. This makes us attractive to as large a target group as possible,” added ten Brink.
Transavia will station four Boeing 737-800s at Munich Airport from the end of March 2016 and will expand its offering from the May 2016. This will be managed from the Netherlands and the flights will be operated under Transavia’s Dutch Air Operator’s Certificate.
It will be the first low-cost entity to operate from a base at the facility and will operate flights to eighteen destinations in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Croatia, Morocco, Belgium, France and the Netherlands. Besides popular leisure destinations like Palma de Mallorca, Faro, Palermo and Marrakech, flights will also be offered to business destinations like Verona, Copenhagen and Brussels. You can view the full planned schedule in our Airline Route blog post.
Transavia already has knowledge of the Munich market and already serves the Bavarian airport from its base at Paris Orly. This route, operated by its French business under the ‘TO’ code, was launched in September this year and has been served with between three and seven weekly flights, according to OAG schedule data.
With its new services it will increase its weekly offer from Munich to more than 100 weekly departures, creating around 120 new jobs in the process. “More and more people are discovering the advantages, convenience and hospitality of Transavia. Our goal is to grow to one million passengers from the new base in Southern Germany in the first year,” added Ten Brink.
With its hub operation, it is no surprise that the Munich market is dominated by Lufthansa and its feeder partners. According to OAG schedule data for this month, the German flag carrier has a 57.5 share of the available capacity with its own mainline and regional carrier links under the ‘LH’ code to 111 destinations.
Fellow German carrier, airberlin is the second largest at Munich with a 7.8 per cent capacity share, while easyJet is the largest low-fare operator with a 2.1 per cent share and flights from seven bases across Italy and the UK. Low-cost carriers currently account for just 5.3 per cent of total departure seats, according to OAG data.
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