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
.
KLM operates worldwide scheduled passenger and cargo services to
more than 90 destinations. KLM is the
oldest airline in the world
still operating under its original name. It has 33,000 employees
(as of March 2007).
The merging of KLM with
Air France in May
2004 created
Air France-KLM.
Air
France-KLM 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,
Northwest Airlines,
Aeroflot, and
China Southern Airlines.
History
A 1919 advertisement
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, and Malmo; using primarily
Fokker F2 &
Fokker
F.III.
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.
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.
KLM Convair
In March and June 2002, KLM announced it would renew its
intercontinental fleets by replacing the
Boeing 767s,
Boeing
747-300s, and eventually the
McDonnell Douglas MD-11 with
Boeing 777-200ER 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 organization
PH-BXA, a Boeing 737-800 aircraft
painted in a retro livery
KLM is listed on the stock exchanges of Amsterdam, New York and
Paris.
Subsidiaries:
Former subsidiaries:
Merger
Air France-KLM
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 will be affected. Both KLM and Northwest joined the
SkyTeam alliance in September 2004.
Presidents - CEOs
KLM Delft Blue houses
Left
1952, KLM has presented its long-haul first-class passengers with
small
Delftware, blue-and-white
porcelain reproductions of old Dutch canal houses.
In 1993, amidst the change-over from three to two cabins on its
long-haul service, these canal houses (in Dutch,
"
huisjes") were made available to its "WorldBusiness
Class" passengers.
Initially, these houses, ranging in size from 5 to 11 cm.
(about 2 to 4 inches) were filled with
Rynbende jenever (a Dutch
liquor and precursor to
gin made from
juniper berries); once Rynbende (Simon Rynbende
& Sons) was acquired by
Henkes, the
houses were filled with Henkes jenever, and when that company was
acquired by Bols, they became filled with
Bols jenever.
The impetus for these houses was a rule aimed at curtailing a
previously-widespread practice of offering significant incentives
to passengers by limiting the value of gifts given by airlines to
75 US cents; however, no limit was placed on the provisions of
duty-free liquor, so KLM was able to provide this more-valuable
gift, camouflaged as liquor. Prior to giving out these Delft-blue
liquor-filled houses, KLM gave Delft-blue tiles as gifts, but these
tiles broke the 75 cent limits.
There are 88 different houses as of 2008, with an additional house
added every year on the 7th of October; this being the anniversary
of KLM's founding (KLM, the world's oldest commercial airline,
being 88 years old in 2008), each numbered and representing the
number of years KLM has been in operation. Each year, a new house
receives the next sequential number. All houses are reproductions
of historic houses in the Netherlands or its overseas dependencies,
although the specific location of every archetype of some of the
first ten
huisjes was not recorded.
In addition to the 88 standard houses, sealed and filled with
jenever (with numerous variations on the wording on the bottom or
back of the houses in different manufacturing batches and with
different jenever manufacturer names), there are variants that are
not filled with gin, which are distributed to passengers on certain
long-haul flights to Islamic countries who forbid import or export
of liquor.
In 2006 when, in response to terrorist
activities, liquids were banned or restricted on various flights,
KLM's trans-Atlantic flights to the United States
briefly also offered the same liquor-free
huisjes.Until the early 1980s, the houses
distributed on those routes were packaged as "ashtrays" with an
open chimney and a semi-circular hole cut into the rear of the
house, ostensibly for a cigarette.
Additional, larger, special Delftware have periodically been
offered to VIPs and
honeymoon couples; for
most of the 1980s and 1990s, this was a model of the Royal Palace;
since 2003, this was the "Waag". These are particularly prized by
collectors and at auctions they are often valued at about
$1000.
Destinations and routes
KLM is the only carrier on 61 of the routes it operates,
representing 45% of its ASKs from the airport. On around 10% of
flights (13 routes) it faces competition from two other airlines.
Eight of
these routes are within Europe (Barcelona
, Copenhagen
, London Heathrow
, Milan Malpensa
, Oslo
, Prague
, Stockholm
and Vienna
), the other
five being Bangkok
, Curaçao
, Taipei
, Toronto
and Tripoli
.
Fleet
The KLM fleet consists of the following aircraft (at 17 October
2009):
Fleet History
Over the years, KLM operated the following aircraft types:
Cabin
Boeing 777-200ER World Business
Class
Boeing 777-200ER Economy Class
Boeing 777-300ER Economy Class
KLM offers
Business Class and
Economy class on its aircraft. On
shorthaul aircraft, Flexible Business Class is called Europe
Select, while on longhaul aircraft Business Class is called World
Business Class.
World Business Class
World Business Class offers a 60 inch pitch on all longhaul
aircraft. All aircraft offer a 170 degree angled lie-flat seat with
a 10.4" TV monitor with AVOD (Audio Video on Demand), email/text
messaging, a privacy canopy, a massage function, and laptop power
ports. KLM's newest addition to the fleet, the Boeing 777-300ER
features the same Business Class seat as merger partner
Air France.
All WBC seats offer personal reading lamps, leg/foot rests, and
personal telephones (At the back of the controller)
Pre-departure facilities include a fully flexible reservation
(except WBC Holiday Fare which may have restrictions ), check-in
desks, lounge access, priority boarding, and 125% to 175% Flying
Blue miles. Onboard, passengers are given a three course meal with
menus, pre-departure beverages, and snacks, which are available
throughout the flight.
Europe Select
Europe Select, KLM's premium product on shorter sectors, is offered
on flights operated by
Boeing 737
equipment. It offers a 33 inch pitch, a meal service on board
(hot or cold meals depend on the length of the flight), priority
boarding, extra baggage allowance, double Flying Blue miles, and
fully flexible booking.
Economy Class
Economy Class offers a 31" pitch on all long haul aircraft except
the
Airbus A330-200, which offers a
32" pitch. Except for the 747-400 planes, wide-bodied aircraft
offers personal TVs with AVOD and personal telephones (on the back
of the controller), and an email/text messaging function. The first
747 plane (PH-BFN) has received the personal TVs onboard the
Economy Class in July 2009 and more 747s will be gradually be
refitted in the next few months. Until then the rest of Boeing
747-400s are limited to personal audio and mainscreen entertainment
without PTVs.
On short haul European flights on KLM and KLM Cityhopper, aircraft
have no in flight entertainment, and contain a seat 31" (except the
Fokker 50 which has a 30.5" pitch . Passengers flying Economy Class
long-haul routes outside of Europe receive a hot meal service
(often more than one depending on the flight duration), with real
metal cutlery. Passengers flying within Europe in KLM Economy Class
receive a snack to suit the time of day. Freshly prepared
sandwiches made the day of flight served on most morning flights.
Drinks (including alcohol) are free on KLM for all passengers, with
the exception of champagne.
KLM's 747-400s and
777-300ER
economy seating are ten-abreast (3-4-3), the
777-200ER and
MD-11s are nine-abreast (3-3-3), while the A330s are
eight abreast (2-4-2).
Codeshare agreements
As of April 2009, KLM has
codeshare
agreements with the following airlines:
KLM - SkyTeam Alliance Logo
KLM Asia
KLM Asia (荷蘭亞洲航空公司
Hanyu
Pinyin: Hélán Yàzhōu Hángkōng Gōngsī) was a wholly KLM owned
subsidiary, registered in
Taiwan, Republic of China.
The
airline was established in 1995 in order to operate flights to
Taipei
, without
compromising the traffic rights held by KLM for destinations in the
People's
Republic of China
. KLM Asia is no longer in operation but its
aircraft still fly in the KLM Asia livery.
The livery of KLM Asia does not feature Dutch national symbols,
such as the
Flag of the
Netherlands, nor does it use KLM's stylised
Dutch Crown logo, instead
featuring a special KLM Asia logo.
KLM Asia fleet
KLM Asia has 6
Boeing 747-400
Combi aircraft (included in the KLM fleet as 747-400M).
- PH-BFC - City of Calgary
- PH-BFD - City of Dubai
- PH-BFF - City of Freetown
- PH-BFH - City of Hong Kong (Currently flying in full passenger
configuration)
- PH-BFM - Mexico City
- PH-BFP - City of Paramaribo
Incidents and accidents
For sourcing and full list of accidents from 1943 see: Aviation safety database
This list does not include
KLM
cityhopper, which had a single
accident involving fatalities in
1994.
The most
notable accident in which a KLM flight has been involved was the
1977 Tenerife
disaster
. After this accident KLM flights have not
lead to fatalities.
Accidents involving fatalities
- On 20 December 1934, KLM Douglas
DC-2, PH-AJU "Uiver" crashed at Rutbah Wells, Iraq,
killing all occupants. It participated in the Mac Robertson Air Race in October
1934 and won the handicap division. It had returned to the
Netherlands in November and the crew were heroes. It was on its
first flight after return from the race and was enroute to the
Netherlands Indies carrying the Christmas mail.
- On 14
July 1935, KLM Fokker F.XXII PH-AJQ "Kwikstaart" crashed
and burned just outside Schiphol
, killing four crew and two passengers - 14 other
occupants survived.
- On 20
July 1935, KLM Douglas DC-2, PH-AKG "Gaai" crashed in an
Alpine pass in the San Bernardino Pass
near Pian San Giacomo, killing all three crew and
all ten passengers.
- On 28 December 1941, KNILM Douglas DC-3, PK-ALN (formerly KLM
PH-ALN) "Nandoe" was destroyed on the ground by Japanese
fighters at Medan, North Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, killing all
crew members and passengers.
- On 14
November 1946 - A KLM Douglas C-47
crashed at Schiphol
Airport
, caused by a failed landing in bad weather.
All 21 passengers and the 5 crew were killed. One passenger was the
Dutch writer Herman de Man.
- On 26
January 1947, KLM Douglas Dakota
PH-TCR crashed after takeoff from Copenhagen, killing all 22
onboard, including Prince Gustaf
Adolf of Sweden
.
- On 20
October 1948, KLM Lockheed
Constellation PH-TEN "Nijmegen" crashed near
Prestwick, Scotland
, killing all 40 aboard. (see KLM Constellation air
disaster 1948)
- On 23
June 1949, KLM Lockheed Constellation PH-TER "Roermond",
piloted by Hans Plesman (the son of CEO Albert Plesman crashed into the sea off
Bari
, killing 33 occupants.
- On 12
July 1949, KLM Lockheed Constellation PH-TDF "Franeker"
crashed into a 674 ft Ghatkopar
hill near Bombay, India
, killing
all 45 aboard. Thirteen of the dead were American news
correspondents.
- On 22 March 1952, a KLM Douglas
DC-7 PH-TBJ crashed in Frankfurt, killing 42 of 47 occupants
[2386].
- On 23 August 1954; a KLM Douglas
DC-6B, PH-DFO "Willem Bontekoe", crashed between
Shannon and Schiphol in the North Sea, 40 km from IJmuiden -
all 21 passengers and crew died.
- On 5
September 1954, Flight 633, a
Lockheed Super Constellation, PH-LKY ditched in the River Shannon
after takeoff from Shannon Airport
, Ireland
. 28 out of 56 people on board (46 passengers
and 10 crew) were killed.
- In 1957 a KLM Super Constellation PH-LKT crashed in the sea
near Biak, after takeoff from Mokmer airport at Biak on its way to
Manilla. The pilot made a low farewell flypass over the island, but
the aircraft lost altitude, crashed into the sea and exploded. Nine
crew and 49 passengers died. Twenty two passengers were rescued, of
whom two died later.
- On 14 August 1958, KLM Flight
607-E, a Lockheed Super Constellation, PH-LKM en route from
Amsterdam to New York, via Shannon Airport, crashed into the ocean
180 km off the coast of Co. Galway, Ireland. 91 passengers and
8 crew members perished.
- On 27
March 1977, Flight
4805
, a Boeing 747-206B, PH-BUF & Pan Am
Flight 1736
, a Boeing 747-121, N736PA, collided at Tenerife North Airport
, Canary
Islands
, killing 583 people. The incident has the
highest number of fatalities (excluding ground fatalities) of any
single accident in aviation history.
Notable incidents without fatalities
- On 17
July 1935, KLM DC-2 PH-AKM "Maraboe" crashed near Bushehr
, Iran. All occupants were rescued.
- On 23
March 1952, a KLM Lockheed Constellation, PH-TFF "Venlo",
suffered a propeller failure and subsequent engine fire during
landing in Bangkok
. All 44 passengers and crew escaped shortly
before the fire completely consumed the plane. A Thai ground
crewman ran into the burning aircraft and returned with an infant
who had been left behind.
- On 15 December 1989, KLM Flight
867, a Boeing 747-400, PH-BFC
flew through a volcanic plume causing nearly US$80 million worth of
damage to the then brand-new aircraft. The plane landed in
Anchorage
, Alaska
, with no
reported injuries or fatalities.
- On 28
November 2004, KLM Flight 1673, a
Boeing 737-400, PH-BTC had a
birdstrike upon rotation from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The plane continued onwards to Barcelona
International Airport
, where the nose gear collapsed. No injuries
or casualties; the aircraft was written off.
Controversy
KLM has been accused of helping
Nazi
war criminals to escape from Europe at the end of the
Second World War. Suspected war criminals
were forbidden by the Allies to leave Germany but historical
research done by Dutch journalists show that KLM asked the Swiss
authorities to allow some former Nazi to cross the borders without
proper documents in order that they could then escape to
South America.
KLM has always denied that it played such a role.
References
- " Contact." KLM Corporate. Retrieved on 28 September
2009.
- (Dutch) Albert Heijn, ed (1969) KL-50 -
logboek van vijftig jaar vliegen. Meijer, Amsterdam.
- Pikula, Sam (Major), The ArmaLite AR-10, Regnum
Publications (1998), p. 73
- http://www.xs4all.nl/~wiltheo/rynbende.htm
- Maurizio Giuliano, The Stamp Collector, Journalist , April 2004
- Dutch civil aircraft register
- CH-Aviation
-
http://corporate.klm.com/assets/files/about-klm/plane%20facts25092009.pdf
KLM corporate Fleet
- KLM retired fleet at airfleets.net. Retrieved
2009-11-29.
- [1]World Business Class Holiday Fare (Dutch
language)
- [2]Flying Blue miles earned depends on booking
class
- [Fokker 50 seat map on seatguru.com
http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/KLM/KLM_Fokker_50.php]
-
http://www.klm.com/travel/gb_en/travel_information/on_board/travel_classes/index.htm#3
- KLM Codeshare Agreements
- De Tijd 24 June 1949, cited in Heijn
(1969)
- De
Telegraaf 17 Jul 1935, cited in Heijn (1969)
- KLM PH-TFF Bangkok Crash
- Aviation Safety Network NTSB
- [3]
-
http://www.trouw.nl/krantenarchief/1996/12/07/2629556/_KLM_hielp_nazi_s_vluchten_.html
-
http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/1901/reisnieuws/article/detail/145789/2008/01/24/KLM-hielp-nazi-s-vluchten.dhtml
-
http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/article421290.ece/KLM_hielp_nazis_bij_vlucht_naar_Argentinie
-
http://www.nd.nl/artikelen/2009/juni/05/buitenlandse-zaken-liet-nazi-vluchten-toe
- http://www.netwerk.tv/node/1329
-
http://www.volkskrant.nl/archief_gratis/article702928.ece/Luchtvaartmaatschappij_reageert_gelaten_op_beschuldiging_van_Amerikaanse_senator_KLM_hielp_na_oorlog_vluchtende_nazis
-
http://www.nrc.nl/binnenland/article1880273.ece/Getuige_KLM_liet_nazis_vluchten
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