I flew Transavia last week to Tenerife and it was very, very pleasant! Seat pitch was, frankly, the best I've ever had on a narrow body! Great for a 4 hour flight.
Only, small, downside is the BOB but the FA's are very nice and pleasant and boarding was quick and efficient (from a regional airport). If it weren't for the perks like mileage, lounge and C check-in, I'd use HV more.

Thats good to know, thanks Food and drinks is all paid right? Perhaps I should make a mini-trip report of my experiences flying them this week as well.

Excuse my ignorance, but what does BOB stand for?

Buy on Board.

Any chance of KLM reinstating its flight or Aegean starting service?

Aegean were quick off the mark to swoop on BUD when Malev collapsed.

Unless there is some reason why AMS-ATH traffic has totally collapsed, then I'm sure Aegean will sit up and take notice at this drastic cut on this particular route. Given that they currently operate 12 flights weekly between BRU and ATH (though I have no idea what their summer schedule is like!), then perhaps they could make a stab at it...

Please do!
They are and stay a holiday carrier but are certainly not like Ryanair or Easy.
You do have to pay for baggage though! (forgot that as with me it was included as part of a holiday package)

I asked KLM: No plans at the moment.

Aegean I am not sure. During the whole A3/OA merger debacle it seemed that the EU did not allow Aegean to fly to the same destinations as OA (Or something of the sorts). Not sure if they are allowed to fly to AMS now..

Two (or more!) separate airlines flying on the same route is the very definition of competition!

I expect that the issue you are referring to is that, if there is a great degree of overlap of destinations served by OA and A3, and there are no other airlines serving many of those routes, that the proposed merged airline would end up with a lot of destinations served only by that single new airline - meaning that they would have a monopoly on many of their routes.

I am sure that the EU and any competition body would have no reason to stop Aegean from flying to AMS (if they wished to fly that route, which is another question entirely)

True, and a 6.5% reduction in overall traffic doesn't mean that all routes into and out of ATH are evenly down by 6.5%. Presumably some routes are more affected than others. And presumably KLM didn't make this decision lightly, or without valid reasons.

But it seems as if the fall in traffic is accelerating. That article states that traffic (both domestic and international) was down 11% in December 2011.

They could fly to AMS every 10 minutes if it took their fancy and had the resources and slots to waste. Airlines do not have to apply for traffic rights within the EU. This is entirely liberalised as long as you are a licensed EU carrier (which A3 obviously is). There are some limited exceptions for certain routes under a PSO regime but that is the exception and AMS-ATH would clearly not be a PSO route.

A3 can fly to the same destinations as OA if it wants to, at any rate within the EU. The problem with the merger was precisely the reverse: competition between OA and A3 would have been eliminated.

Thanks, that does indeed make sense. The funny thing is that with both airlines serving different destinations, there was no competition anyway..

Anyway, I was at ATH yesterday and asked at the Olympic and KLM ticket desks.

- Olympic said nothing has been confirmed, but it seems to be final. However there still is a possibility that they will re-add flights to AMS for this summer.
- The OA lady offered me to refund my ticket directly, but also said chances are that Olympic will rebook on other carriers later on. I chose to wait a bit more.

- At the KLM desk it became clear this was a very radical action, with no notice whatsoever to KLM. They confirmed that KLM did indeed reduce capacity on the route due to the OA codeshares.
- The KLM lady expects that KLM will re-add at least one flight, and it should happen soon. The new schedule will go into effect in 3 weeks from now.

Unfortunately I didn't have time to ask Aegean as well, but I doubt they would have been able to tell me anything.

It was good to read that Greek newspapers have judged OA quite a lot on the issue. They ran an article outlining the fact that OA and KL had just recently started a partnership through codeshares, and that OA has changed direction suddenly and without notice. From now on OA will focus more on eastern flights, Israel mainly, and not western Europe.

Is there anybody else here that was impacted by the cancelations? I booked Malev, they went under...I replaced with OA and now thats cancelled too. Meanwhile ticket prices are through the roof, and if I need to rebook myself it will cost at least twice as much from what I originally paid. Anybody else waiting for the right moment to book alternative flights?

From when on has OA cancelled their flights? I'm travelling to Greece in April but have no idea whom I'm flying with (certainly not KL ).

The problem was not on international routes but rather on domestic routes within Greece. Specifically, the EU Commission identified 9 domestic routes (including ATH-SKG) on which competition would disappear altogether and give the new airline a monopoly with no realistic prospect of any other airline entering the market to challenge it.

NickB: Thanks for clarifying!

You have 1600+ posts here but don't know whom youre flying with? ;-) Just kidding!

Are you flying from AMS? Which flight numbers?

KL leaves AMS 12:05, OA at 10:20AM and 20:30PM. For the return KL is 17:20PM, the rest is OA. Unless of course you are booked under HV flight numbers, which will be operated by Transavia.

It's a school trip so I don't have much info on the flights yet. I wondered when the flights reduction is.