Transavia, the low-cost subsidiary of Air France, will add a ninth daily weekday flight to its Toulouse-Orly route from October 25 and switch its entire Toulouse operation to Airbus A320neo aircraft from December 6, Philippe Crebassa, president of the executive board of Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, said in an interview with La Depeche.
Crebassa was speaking five months after Transavia took over the Toulouse-Orly route from Air France's former La Navette shuttle service. He said the switch to Transavia had gone well overall, even though load factors were modest in the first weeks of operation.
Since July, he said, bookings have risen sharply and now exceed 85 percent. That improvement prompted Transavia to add the extra weekday frequency starting with the winter season.
New flight times and aircraft
The additional Monday flight will depart Orly at 6:30am and land in Toulouse at 8:35am, Crebassa said. From Tuesday to Friday, the extra flight will run in the mid-afternoon, leaving Paris at 2:40pm and Toulouse at 4:45pm.
From December 6, Transavia will operate all its Toulouse flights with Airbus A320neo jets, replacing the Boeing 737s it has used until now. Crebassa said passengers would get a brand new cabin, more overhead luggage space, wider and more reclining seats, and USB ports, and that the cabin would be a real step up in comfort compared with the 737.
Complaints over frequency and punctuality
Many passengers have said Transavia does not run enough flights between Toulouse and Orly compared with the former La Navette service, and that punctuality has not always been reliable.
Crebassa said the airline was on a path of continuous improvement, pointing to the new ninth frequency and the switch to the A320neo as evidence. He said Transavia's punctuality currently sat around the market average, with about 69 percent of flights arriving on time in Toulouse and 64 percent departing on time, below the roughly 80 percent standard expected in the market.
He attributed the shortfall to exceptional circumstances over the summer that affected other airlines as well, including heavy air traffic control regulation and difficult weather. He also pointed to the rollout of the European Union's new Entry/Exit System, which requires travelers from outside the EU passing through border control for the first time to register, saying it had delayed numerous flights.
Fares and pricing policy
Many travelers consider Transavia's fares high for an airline that markets itself as low-cost. Crebassa said fares depend on the travel period, how far in advance a ticket is booked and the time chosen. He said tickets booked two months in advance are easily available from 38 euros.
He said it was hard to blame an airline on this point, since Transavia is an economic operator applying yield management, adjusting its prices in real time according to demand, as all airlines do. Crebassa said Transavia's management would very likely return to Toulouse before the end of the year to carry out a thorough first review and set out plans. He noted the route has only existed for a few months and is still young, and said it should be given the time it needs to mature and grow.
About the airport and airline
Toulouse-Blagnac Airport is one of France's largest regional airports, serving the southwestern city of Toulouse and the surrounding area. Transavia is a low-cost airline owned by the Air France-KLM group, operating short-haul routes across Europe and North Africa.
