Air France-KLM is poised to announce significant investment in its Transavia low-cost airline after an aborted attempt to launch an offshoot last year.
The carrier had intended to launch Transavia Europe, to add to its existing Transavia France and Transavia Netherlands operations but pulled the plug after a pilots’ strike.
The Wall Street Journal reports today that Air France-KLM is now poised to announce an order for 20 aircraft said to be destined mainly for Transavia.
Transavia chief executive, Matthijs ten Brink, told the newspaper the airline feels it needs to act quickly to open bases outside of its core markets to counter competition from rival low-cost airlines.
“Now we have been given an additional year to fix things internally, there is no need to create a new airline,” ten Brink was reported as saying.
“Basically, the argument to launch a new airline was to not suffer from the legacy we carried in the Netherlands and partly in France. We weren’t ready to take on the competition battle in Europe.”
The aircraft order, expected to be confirmed in the coming weeks, comes on top of a €1 billion investment announced last year.