Transavia also cancels flights in May and June Yesterday, 18:59 in Economy Transavia has problems with the aircraft, which has caused flights to be canceled since the beginning of this month.

Flight cancellations by Transavia are not over yet. Flights will also have to be canceled in May and June, the company says. In the course of next week, the airline will announce numbers and passengers will be informed.

In this way, the airline hopes to be able to provide clarity to passengers and travel organizations sooner. Lately, cancellations have often come at the last minute.

Travel organizations are now busy rebooking customers who would travel with canceled Transavia flights. That does not work in all cases, says a spokesperson for the ANVR trade association.

Shortly before

Earlier this month, the company announced that it would have to cancel 5 percent of its flights. There are always new cancellations very shortly in advance. Flights have also been canceled for this weekend, it turned out today. Seven flights will not take place on Saturday, three on Sunday.

“We are disappointed that we let you know when a flight is canceled,” says an ANVR spokesperson. “If we had known this a few weeks ago, we could have rebooked customers, but now it’s all hands on deck.” It is better that announcements are now made further in advance than at the last minute, he says, “but in a general sense it is not good that fewer people can go on holiday”.

For customers who have booked through a travel organization, the travel organization must look for an alternative. People who have booked a separate ticket must look for a replacement themselves.

Disappointing

At TUI, 3000 travelers have so far been affected by the cancellations for the months of April and May. “We also only hear it very shortly in advance, and our colleagues are working almost day and night to find alternatives,” says a spokesperson for the company.

But that doesn’t always work. “In a third to a quarter of the cases there is no suitable alternative, and the journey cannot continue.” This may be because a traveler cannot go on another date or because, for example, the hotel is already full on other days, says the travel organization.

To provide clarity earlier, Transavia is now announcing that it will also cancel flights in May and June. “It is disappointing and not the service we want to offer that we now have to cancel flights at the last minute before the weekend. And we want to do better in the period May and June,” says operational director of Transavia Marloes van Laake in the NPO Radio 1 program Nieuws en Co.

Lightning

There are three reasons for so many cancellations, says Van Laake. Five new devices would be added for the May holiday, but the delivery of three of them has been delayed. In addition, heavy maintenance for other aircraft is delayed because parts are delivered late. “That means we don’t have such an aircraft back in operation while we planned to.”

Finally, the company suffers more than usual from damage to devices. This concerns, for example, lightning damage, says Van Laake. According to the company, that is also the reason why announcements are added again and again.

“We have several setbacks at the same time that we can’t handle properly,” says Van Laake. “If we could have foreseen that, we certainly would have.”

Seven Transavia aircraft are now grounded. Normally, two to three aircraft would remain on the ground as reserve capacity, says a Transavia spokesperson. “One aircraft can do two or three return flights a day. If you miss four or five aircraft, you understand that a lot can be cancelled.”

Summer vacation

According to the ANVR, Transavia has not sufficiently made good the estimate. “That is why we are disappointed: the May and summer holidays are the most important holiday periods for package tour providers.”

TUI says it is already in talks with Transavia about compensation.

The big question is whether these problems will be solved before the summer. Transavia expects things to be different before the start of the summer holidays.