For a group of holidaymakers who would fly back to Eindhoven from Spain on Wednesday, the holiday unintentionally takes a little longer. Transavia canceled their flight at the last minute. This is all due to the lingering aircraft shortage at the airline. “We can’t promise that this won’t happen more often in the coming weeks.”
Several travelers are complaining on Twitter about their canceled return flights, from Valencia and Malaga, among others. For example, one Sander writes: “Thanks for the information, Transavia. We’ll walk back to Eindhoven.” And Michiel is anything but happy. “You cancel my flight and now I’ve been on hold for fifty minutes. Well arranged.”
A spokesman for Transavia listens to it with resignation. “This has everything to do with the tightness of our fleet.” The shortage of aircraft is due to four aircraft having to be grounded due to problems with the safety certificates. Two aircraft are also grounded for major maintenance.
Transavia previously reported that these problems will affect at least five percent of all flights in April and May. “We have to intervene at the slightest thing that happens in our schedules,” the spokesperson explains. “One day it concerns one canceled flight, the next two, and fortunately it is often possible to prevent cancellations.”
“We are very disappointed about this.”
For the travelers who would fly back this week from places such as Malaga and Valencia, this prevention has therefore not been successful. “Very disappointing,” says the spokesperson. “We are very disappointed about this.”
It is unclear how long it will take for the stranded travelers to be flown back. According to Transavia, everything is done to help them as best as possible. “First of all, the normal conditions for cancellations apply. For example, they are entitled to compensation. But we also try to think along if, for example, an extra hotel night is needed.”
For the time being, it seems that travelers with Transavia will have to take into account the risk that a flight will not depart unexpectedly. “We hope that one of the aircraft will soon come out of major maintenance. That will give a little more air. Until then, we will try to solve this huge puzzle as best we can.”
Waiting for privacy settings…