vices from Stansted, London City, Jersey and Aberdeen.
A Transavia spokesman said Avia reps, the UK company that handles the carrier’s sales, reservation and marketing functions, will retain UK sales manager Carol Bray and otherstaff working on the Dutch account.
Transavia uses all economy-class Boeing 737s and B757s on the route with up to six flights a week depending on season.
Transavia chief executive officer Peter Legro said a thorough analysis of the airline’s route structure was carried out with other parts of the KLM Group.
“We are sad to stop the service to London but it makes sense to capitalise on the benefits of being part of a major group by concentrating on Transavia’s expertise with leisure services,” he said.
Legro added that the decision allowed other parts of the KLM Group to concentrate on routes which have a large percentage of business traffic.
Two years ago, Transavia dropped its business-class product and opted for a single cabin after admitting its premium traffic was down.
A Transavia spokesman added that with Amsterdam being a hub and spoke operation used as a connecting airport, the airline’s Gatwick flights were not well timed to feed into KLM’s bank of international departures.
KLM withdrew from the Gatwick-Amsterdam market soon after launching services on the route in competition with Transavia in the late 1980s.
TRANSAVIA is ending its 13-year association with Gatwick this winter by transferring its Amsterdam route to parent company KLM.
The switch, which marks the return of KLM on the route after an absence of more than 10 years, is effective from November 15 and follows an intensive review by both carriers of their UK operations.
Transavia said it was sad to lose the route but admitted it was not performing to expectations. The airline added that the route would fit better into KLM’s strategy of feeding its UK flights into the Dutch carrrier’s wave of connecting flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.
KLM and its sister company KLM UK currently operate out of 18 UK departure points to Amsterdam. The latter recently announced a 12% increase in overall capacity between the two markets, though it has also carried out a major shake-up of selected domestic regional services from Stansted, London City, Jersey and Aberdeen.
A Transavia spokesman said Avia reps, the UK company that handles the carrier’s sales, reservation and marketing functions, will retain UK sales manager Carol Bray and otherstaff working on the Dutch account.
Transavia uses all economy-class Boeing 737s and B757s on the route with up to six flights a week depending on season.
Transavia chief executive officer Peter Legro said a thorough analysis of the airline’s route structure was carried out with other parts of the KLM Group.
“We are sad to stop the service to London but it makes sense to capitalise on the benefits of being part of a major group by concentrating on Transavia’s expertise with leisure services,” he said.
Legro added that the decision allowed other parts of the KLM Group to concentrate on routes which have a large percentage of business traffic.
Two years ago, Transavia dropped its business-class product and opted for a single cabin after admitting its premium traffic was down.
A Transavia spokesman added that with Amsterdam being a hub and spoke operation used as a connecting airport, the airline’s Gatwick flights were not well timed to feed into KLM’s bank of international departures.
KLM withdrew from the Gatwick-Amsterdam market soon after launching services on the route in competition with Transavia in the late 1980s.