The bags were already partially packed when Marjolene received a disturbing email this morning, just when she wanted to check in. “Dear Marjolene. We’re sorry, unfortunately your flight from Amsterdam to Naples has been cancelled,” reads the text of the email, which offers two options.
250 euros instead of 95
Rebook or refund. “I called, but rebooking wasn’t an option. Then we were flying out a day later. But we had already booked a taxi and hotel for the first day and we can’t get those costs back,” says the conned traveler. She is taking an Italian language course in the Netherlands and is going to Italy for a week with eight classmates.
I started looking for alternatives. “With KLM, but the direct flight was full while I was watching. Maybe more people were looking for an alternative. We’ve now booked a flight from Amsterdam to Milan and then to Naples. Then we’ll arrive a few hours later and the cost is much higher. Last minute prices are high.” Very much. Now we pay 250 euros per trip per person. In Transavia it was 95 euros.”
She will be back from Naples next week. Nowadays with direct flight with Transavia. “But we’re afraid that won’t happen either. On the phone they said the outward flight was canceled for operational reasons. But didn’t they know that more than 30 hours in advance? If you can get back, you’re stuck there.”
Leaf problems
A Transavia spokesperson says six planes are missing from the fleet. As a result, 5 percent of flights were canceled in April and May. The company does not want to say how many passengers were affected.
Two Transavia aircraft are being serviced, but parts are not yet available. The company has also leased four planes from a Romanian airline that will expire in September 2022. However, there are problems with the paperwork, which means those planes are not allowed to fly.
Most travelers reported on April 4th
“We informed the majority of passengers who flew this spring on April 4, based on the information we had at the time. But it may be true that some passengers only received an email today. We did the calculation at the beginning of April. What flights are there,” says a Transavia spokesperson. : “Can the journey continue? But because parts take longer to arrive and other planes sometimes get stuck, a flight can always be cancelled.”
“Within reason”, affected travelers can recover the extra costs they have incurred, for example because another flight is more expensive, from Transavia. “We are lenient with that.” Under European compensation rules, this only applies to passengers whose flight will depart within two weeks after they hear of the cancellation.
It is not clear now when the second largest airline in the Netherlands will restore its fleet to full strength. The company hopes to get rid of the problems in June, but it can’t guarantee that.