Wednesday, May 12th 1993: London Gatwick Airport
Reason: day trip to Amsterdam for a meeting
Flights:
Transavia Airlines LGW -> AMS 737-3K2 PH-HVJ
Transavia Airlines AMS -> LGW 737-222 PH-TVH
I didn't know a great deal about Transavia at the time...excepting that they were a Dutch charter airline that was occasionally seen in the UK, and sometimes wet leased or dry leased it's 737-200s to UK airlines. I was travelling scheduled services however, which were started in 1986 by Transavia, following an open skies agreement between the UK and The Netherlands, resulting in Transavia's Amsterdam - London route.
My first outbound flight was on a 737-300 PH-HVJ, a relatively young aircraft, delivered six years previously in March 1987. That aircraft was sold to Southwest Airlines as N340LV in November 1999, and was finally removed from service last November, now stored at Tucson, AZ, and likely facing part out.
737-222 PH-TVH had some serious miles and history on the clock, even in 1993. It was mostly dedicated to the AMS-LGW-AMS route from 1986, and could regularly be seen at LGW several times a day. The aircraft was delivered new to United Airlines as N9074U in October 1969. Only the 210th 737 built, United sold the aircraft (and a number of sister ships) in 1975, as it sought to streamline it's operations and react to the fuel and economic crisis prevalent at the time.
Boeing 737-222 MSN 19955 L/N 210 F/F 9/30/69
Initially leased by Transavia Holland, the aircraft was later sold to International Lease Finance Company (ILFC) late 1975 (at the time a relatively new and upcoming operating lease company based in Los Angeles, CA, and destined to become one of the most successful companies of it's genre), and continued service with Transavia Holland until it's November 1986 re-branding as Transavia Airlines. The aircraft continued service with Transavia until April 1995, a 20 year stint.
The venerable aircraft returned to the United States for a six year lease to Vanguard Airlines as N603DJ between September 1995 and March 2001.
Still not done, the aircraft migrated to South America for a few more years service with Peru's Aerocontinente as OB-1755, Aerocontinente Dominica as HI-764CA, and back to Aerocontinente as OB-1783. The aircraft was finally retired at Lima, Peru in July 2004. [No pictures of ACQ service].
Transavia Holland - the early years
Transavia Holland commenced operations on November 16th 1966 (30 days before I was born!) operating three DC-6 piston aircraft on charter services, a role it would continue to play for many years, in competition with Martinair Holland.
It wasn't long before the ageing DC-6s were replaced from summer 1969 with Sud Aviation Caravelle jets,
with a total of 14 used aircraft eventually operated.
Sud Aviation Caravelle III Transavia Holland PH-TRO
New and Used 737-200s started to join the fleet in the mid-1970s, a mixture of 737-200C convertible aircraft, and pure passenger configured aircraft, heralding the replacement of the Caravelles. Below - Transavia's first 737-200C.
A brief experiment with wide bodied aircraft saw Transavia operate a single Airbus A300B2 between May 1976 and January 1977, it's only wide body aircraft operating experience to date.
Re-named Transavia Airlines in November 1986, the airline was at the time replacing 737-200s with 737-300s, which continued to be delivered until the mid-1990s.
Boeing 737-7K2 MSN 30784 MSN 30784 L/N 873 Transavia Airlines PH-XRA (mid-2000 transavia.com colors).
Boeing 737-8K2 MSN 34171 L/N 2950 Transavia Airlines PH-TSA (Transavia's first 737-800 in transavia.com mid-2000 colors)
Boeing 737-8K2 MSN 62157 L/N 6380 Transavia Airlines PH-HXK (TRA's newest 737-800 delivery - April 2017).
Transavia's modern fleet is now made up of next generation 737-700/800s. Transavia has been a wholly owned subsidiary of KLM since June 2003 (80% KLM owned since 1998), and is therefore a subsidiary of Air France-KLM. A French low cost subsidiary of the group, Transavia France, was created in 2007, and operates seamlessly with the same name, livery, website and marketing.
A classic airline, and also a modern European LCC contender, with a distinctly Dutch twist!
Transavia Airlines - Current Fleet
8 x 737-700
36 x 737-800 (includes summer leases)
Transavia France - Current Fleet
29 x 737-800
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