Transavia Holland

History

Transavia was founded in the mid-1960s by American aviator Chalmers Goodlin and Dutch captain Pete Holmes, with its inaugural flight on 16-17 November 1966 carrying the Dutch Ballet Orchestra from Amsterdam to Naples. Originally a charter operator, the airline expanded through the 1970s and 1980s as Dutch leisure travel demand grew. KLM acquired an 80% stake in Transavia in 1991 and bought out the remaining shares in 2003, fully absorbing the carrier into what later became the Air France–KLM Group. Since then Transavia has evolved into the group's dedicated low-cost leisure brand, operating alongside a French sister carrier, Transavia France, under a shared brand but a separate air operator's certificate and a different IATA code. The Dutch entity, flying under code HV, has become one of Europe's fastest-growing low-cost operators, expanding steadily from Amsterdam into secondary Dutch cities, Belgium, and beyond.

Current Operations

Transavia operates a fleet of roughly 45-50 narrow-body aircraft, historically Boeing 737s but now transitioning to the Airbus A320neo family, with its first A321neo delivered in December 2023 and dozens more A320neo-family jets on order. The airline flies to around 90-100 leisure-oriented destinations across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East from its main base at Amsterdam Schiphol, supplemented by bases at Eindhoven, Rotterdam-The Hague, and Brussels. As a wholly owned subsidiary of KLM within the Air France-KLM Group, Transavia does not hold SkyTeam alliance membership itself but benefits from group-wide commercial and codeshare links. The carrier returned to strong profitability in 2024 alongside its fleet modernization program, and continues expanding capacity from its Brussels base, launched in December 2021, as part of the group's broader low-cost growth strategy.

Last verified 2026-08-22· Source: airline public disclosures, company press releases & aviation-industry reporting.

Serves These Profiled Airports35

Sample Routes8