Quote:
Originally Posted by de66
Transavia started out as an independent charter airline. Based in the Netherlands they were the second biggest carrier there after KLM (the world first commercial airline btw). They were bought by KLM a long time ago because KLM had issues to bring down their operational costs. The idea was to transfer more and more of the european sectors to the lower cost based Transavia. In order to stay competitive with hotel and travel organizations forming their own charter airlines (like TUI, Thomas Cook, edelweis - all partially financed by tour operators) the Transavia airline was transformed into a low cost carrier. This was all before the KLM/ air France merger.
Air france ended up with financial problems primarily due to mismanagement and high labor costs. Their strong unions and socialist labor laws resulted in AF being amongst the highest paid and lowest worked staff in the industry. KLM was still under pressure from the likes of Easyjet and Ryanair and having trouble to find financing to renew their fleet. Prior to the merger KLM was an all Boeing airliner. As AF needed to get rid of aircraft because of the closing of some unprofitable routes, but with new airbusses being delivered, these airbusses now ended up cheap at KLM to start replacing their Boeing MD11 fleet - and considered a win-win part of the merger.
AF side of the business still had an overly expensive structure so the board of the KLM/AF group tried to copy the KLM/Transavia model, putting pressure on AF salaries by threatening to transfer more operations to (and here it comes) a newly created FRENCH company called ..... Transavia. This one is run with french registered aircraft but independent from their Dutch namesake (Dutch registrations start with "PH"). Although there is an apparent similarity between the two companies, they are not the same.
This does not in any way change or defend whats happening. In fact I 100% agree with you. The situation has become so weird, cheating us, the consumer, in a myriad of ways.
Norwegian actually employs their pilots via companies that are not based in
Norway, using font companies that "own" their aircraft so they can avoid paying taxes and salaries according european and norwegian labor laws.
Very worrying if you ask me.... Your pilots are allowed to work upto 12 hours or more on shorthaul flights. Truck drivers have more strict work and rest times....
I think that according EU laws the airlines have been made directly responsible for many things. But I wonder if they could legally leave so many passengers behind when their bags were loaded. Normally regulations prohibit flying with bags whose owners are not on board.
Their behavior was stupid and short sighted. Try writing to the Dutch Transavia customer service as well and tell them how this cobranding is also hurting their Dutch operations.
Poor show all the way round imo.
Btw, in Europe there is often a misconception of "low cost carrier", probably lost in translation. People often think this refers to "low cost of tickets for the passenger" rather than "low operational cost for the airline/company".
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Thanks for the comprehensive review.
As for flying with checked-in luggage but without the flyer, no, that's not what happened. Instead, the flight flew with everyone who checked in before 06h25 (for a flight at 08h20), but everyone who was blocked from checking in due to the security situation, were considered to have "missed" the flight. Every other airline delayed their flights to check in those waiting while the police took two hours to explode a suitcase.
Transavia is just the worst.