KLM

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KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij
IATA
KL ICAO
KLM Callsign
KLM
Founded 7 October 1919
Commenced operations 17 May 1920
Hubs Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
Frequent flyer program Flying Blue
Member lounge
Alliance SkyTeam
Subsidiaries
Fleet size 112 (+18 orders) incl. cargo
excl. subsidiaries
Destinations 125 incl.subsidiaries
Company slogan "Een reis vol inspiratie" (A journey full of inspiration)
Parent company Air France-KLM
Headquarters Amstelveen, Netherlands[1]
Key people Albert Plesman (founder)
P. F. Hartman (CEO)
F. Gagey (CFO)
Website www.klm.com

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (Dutch: Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij, literally Royal Aviation Company; usual English translation: Royal Dutch Airlines) is the national airline of the Netherlands and is part of Air France-KLM. KLM's headquarters are in Amstelveen near its hub at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol[2].

KLM operates worldwide scheduled passenger and cargo services to more than 90 destinations. It is the oldest airline in the world still operating under its original name. It has 33,000 employees (as of March 2007)[3].

The merger of KLM with Air France in May 2004 created Air France-KLM, which is incorporated under French law with headquarters at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. Both Air France and KLM continue to fly under their distinct brand names.

Air France-KLM is part of the SkyTeam alliance with Delta Air Lines, Aeroméxico, Korean Air, Czech Airlines, Alitalia, Aeroflot and China Southern Airlines.

History

KLM was founded on 7 October 1919, making it the oldest carrier in the world still operating under its original name, though the company stopped operating during the Second World War - apart from the operations in the Dutch Antilles in the Caribbean. The first KLM flight was on 17 May 1920, from Croydon Airport, London to Amsterdam carrying two British journalists and a number of newspapers. It was flown by an Aircraft Transport and Travel Airco DH.16, callsign G-EALU, piloted by Jerry Shaw. In 1920 KLM carried 440 passengers and 22 tons of freight. In 1921 KLM started scheduled services. By 1926 it was offering flights to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels, Paris, London, Bremen, Copenhagen Malmö; using primarily Fokker F2 & Fokker F.III.[4] KLM was also the first airline to fly to Manchester Airport, using a DC-2 via Doncaster.

Intercontinental service to the Netherlands East Indies (today's Republic of Indonesia) started in 1929. This was for several years the world's longest scheduled route. The service used Fokker F.VIIb, although the first non-scheduled KLM flight had been in 1924 by Fokker F7 registration H-NACC piloted by Van der Hoop. In 1930 KLM carried 15,143 passengers. The first transatlantic KLM route was between Amsterdam and Curaçao in December 1934 using the Fokker F-XVIII "Snip." In the 1940s the KLM was the only civilian airline operating the Douglas DC-5.

On 21 May 1946, KLM was the first continental European airline to launch scheduled service to New York. In 1950 KLM carried 356,069 passengers. On 25 July 1957, the airline introduced its first flight simulator for the Douglas DC-7C - the last KLM aircraft with piston engines - which opened the first trans-polar route from Amsterdam via Anchorage to Tokyo on 1 November 1958. Each crew flying the transpolar route over the Arctic was equipped with a winter survival kit, including a 7.62 mm selective-fire AR-10 carbine for use against polar bears in the event the plane was forced down onto the polar ice.[5]

In March 1960, KLM introduced the first Douglas DC-8 jet into its fleet. In 1966, KLM introduced the Douglas DC-9 on European and Middle East routes. The new terminal buildings at Schiphol Airport opened in April 1967 and in 1968, the Douglas DC-8-63 entered service. With 244 seats it was the largest airliner of the time. KLM was the first airline to put the higher gross-weight Boeing 747-200B into service in February 1971 with Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines, beginning the era of widebody jets.

In 1980, KLM carried 9,715,069 passengers. In 1983, it reached agreement with Boeing to convert some of its Boeing 747-200s to stretched upper deck configuration. The work started in 1984 at the Boeing factory in Everett, Washington and finished in 1986. The converted aircraft were called Boeing 747-200SUD, which the airline operated in addition to Boeing 747-300s. In June 1989, KLM introduced the Boeing 747-400. Later that year, in July, KLM acquired 20 per cent of Northwest Airlines, starting an alliance between the two airlines. In 1990, KLM carried 16,000,000 passengers. In March 1994, KLM and Northwest Airlines introduced World Business Class on intercontinental routes, and, in July 1995, KLM introduced its Boeing 767-300ER.

In March and June 2002, KLM announced it would renew its intercontinental fleets by replacing the Boeing 767s, Boeing 747-400s and eventually the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 with Boeing 777-200ERs and Airbus A330-200s. Some 747s will be first to retire. The MD-11s will remain in service until 2014/2015. The first Boeing 777 was received on 25 October 2003, entering commercial service on the Amsterdam-Toronto route, while the first Airbus A330-200 was introduced on 25 August 2005 and entered commercial service on the Amsterdam-Washington Dulles route.

In March 2007 KLM started using the Amadeus reservation system, along with partner Kenya Airways.

Corporate organisation

KLM is listed on the stock exchanges of Amsterdam, New York and Paris.

Subsidiaries:

• KLM Cityhopper (formerly: NLM CityHopper)
• KLM Cargo
• KLM flight academy
• Transavia Airlines, wholly owned low cost subsidiary of KLM
• 26% share in Kenya Airways
• KLM Engineering & Maintenance
• Martinair, wholly owned since 31-12-2008

Former subsidiaries:

• KLM Helicopters
• KLM uk was a KLM subsidiary until merged with KLM Cityhopper.
• Buzz, the low-cost airline of KLM UK
• KLM exel, a commuter airline.
• KLM Asia - See KLM Asia

Merger

On 30 September 2003, Air France and KLM announced that they would in future be known as Air France-KLM. This entity was offered on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange on 5 May 2004. The takeover by Air France marked the end of the oldest independent airline in the world. The Royal adjective will remain. Its independent identity is guaranteed to 2008, but its operations may be merged with those of the French company. In the meantime, it does not appear that KLM's longstanding joint venture with Northwest Airlines, now Delta Air Lines, will be affected. Both KLM and Northwest joined the SkyTeam alliance in September 2004.

Presidents - CEOs

• Albert Plesman (1919—1953)
• Fons Aler (1953—1961)
• Ernst van der Beugel (1961—1963)
• Horatius Albarda (1963—1965)
• Gerrit van der Wal (1965— 1973)
• Sergio Orlandini (1973—1987)
• Jan de Soet (1987—1991)
• Pieter Bouw (1991—1997)
• L. M. van Wijk (1997—2007)
• Peter Hartman (2007—present)

KLM Delft Blue houses