CEO Jean-Marc Janaillac has launched an initiative to tackle the airline's issues head-on, mainly cutting costs and growing long-haul operations. Air France-KLM returned to net profit for the first time in six financial years last year, turning a net loss of €225 million in 2014 to a positive net result of €118 million.
Although the Air France-KLM Group low-cost brand has previously served the UK market from the Netherlands, the new links from Paris Orly into England and Scotland’s capital cities by its Transavia France operation represent its first ever flights between France and the UK.
Dutch low-cost carrier Transavia is well known in its home market in the Netherlands and in France, where it has established a Transavia France division, but it is now seeking to grow in other European countries as it aims to establish itself as a pan-European airline brand.
Alongside Schiphol, Rotterdam/The Hague and Eindhoven in the Netherlands, and Paris Orly, Nantes and Lyon in France, Munich Airport will now be the seventh operational home base for Transavia. The airport in Bavaria serves close to 40 million passengers annually and is the second largest airport in Germany after Frankfurt, both being major hubs for Lufthansa and the Star Alliance.
According to airport operator Hermes Airports, the operations of Transavia in Cyprus, is a result of the coordinated actions of the company in collaboration with the stakeholders of the tourism industry of the country and will help contribute to the efforts to increase the tourist flows into Cyprus from mainland Europe.