Tag Archives: KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

KLM sets a record for passengers in 2018

KLM welcomed a record 34.2 million passengers on board in 2018. That is a 4.5% increase compared to 2017. The growth was greatest in Europe and in North and South America. The strong passenger growth resulted in a record load factor of 89.1% for the entire year, which is 0.7%^pt higher than in 2017. At KLM Cargo, the load factor increased by 1.4% to 67%.

The slight drop in passenger numbers at Transavia was the result of the closure of the Munich base. Transavia Netherlands welcomed 5.2% more passengers than in 2017

“In 2018, we expanded our worldwide network to a total of 166 with four new destinations. Last year, the KLM Group (including Transavia Netherlands) welcomed 43 million passengers on board. It’s a great achievement that all of us at KLM, as a whole, can be proud of.”

Pieter Elbers, President and CEO, KLM

KLM to add Naples, Italy as a new destination

KLM has made this announcement:

In the spring of 2019, KLM will expand its network with service to the Italian port of Naples.

KLM’s 10th destination in Italy will only be served in the summer months.

The first flight to Naples will depart on April 21, 2019. KLM will operate Boeing 737-700/800 aircraft on the route.

In July and August, KLM will operate daily service to Naples, restricting service to weekends only during the rest of the season.

Photo: KLM.

KLM opens the first phase of the new Crown Lounge at AMS

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines on December 13 opened the first part of the new KLM non-Schengen Crown Lounge at Schiphol for its customers.

The lounge now boasts a completely new setup and ambience. The primary point of departure here is the ultimate customer experience. The lounge features the latest technologies and innovations, along with top-notch service and catering provisions. Customers can already take advantage of this in a temporary setup. Refurbishment of the second part of the lounge continues until its festive opening in summer 2019, the year in which KLM will celebrate its 100^thanniversary.

The international KLM Crown Lounge is located between the E and F Piers at Schiphol. The lounge caters to KLM’s most important customers travelling on intercontinental flights. The lounge is easy to find thanks to its new impressive entrance on the Holland Boulevard. Customers can access the lounge by escalator or elevator, are welcomed individually by personal lounge assistance and can gain easy access by scanning their boarding passes at the self-service devices. The lounge facilities are located on the second floor and on the completely rejuvenate third floor.

New service and catering concepts

Taken together, the new food & drink concepts, kitchen layout, logistics, digital innovations including self-service access and rejuvenated service provided by lounge staff all contribute towards an entirely personal experience. In so doing, KLM has created the lounge of the future.

New decor and fittings & fixtures catering to customer requirements

The new decor of the KLM non-Schengen Crown Lounge focuses on providing customers with a completely new experience. To this end, KLM has set up different zones to satisfy the diverse wishes and requirements of its customers: work, relaxation, food & drink, entertainment and fine dining. Capacity has also been expanded in order to accommodate anticipated growth in the number of (intercontinental) lounge visitors in the future. Once renovated completely, the lounge will offer around 1,500 seats in comparison with the previous 800 and will boast a surface area of 6,800 m2 compared to 3,600 m2 now.

KLM: Bye bye Boeing 747-400; “City of Bangkok”

From the KLM blog:

By Coco Peters,

“City of Bangkok” is the oldest Boeing 747 still in operation at KLM. This aircraft type has iconic status in aviation history. The Boeing arrived in Amsterdam from Seattle in 1989 and has, in the meantime, carried a considerable number of passengers. But now it’s time to say farewell. Boeing 747-400 City of Bangkok will soon fly its last flight after almost 30 years of faithful service.

I was lucky enough to be allowed to watch this “crate” undergo its final service. There is nothing better for an intern than to be allowed to nose around an aircraft. Every time I go into a hangar (I make it sound as if I go every week, but it was only my third time) my KLM-blue heart starts to beat a little faster. How bizarre it is that such an enormous machine can get up into the air. This aircraft weighs around 178,750 kilograms. It is completely empty now. Where there would normally be 408 passengers, plus cockpit and cabin crew, there is no one. The Boeing 747-400 is in Hangar 11 for maintenance.

Boeing 747-400 facts:

Wing span: 64.44m (a football pitch is between 64m and 75m wide, that’s how wide a Boeing 747-400 is).
Length: 70.67m
Cruising speed: 920kmph
Range: 12,900km
Number of passengers: 408
In service at KLM since June 1989
This machine has spent a total of 134,279 hours in the air and performed 18,024 take-offs (and, luckily, 18,024 landings too). This is equivalent to 15.7 years of non-stop flying!

Imagine, if the average load factor over all 29 years was 80%, with 408 seats on board, you would come out at (0.8 x 408) x 18,024 = 5,883,033.6. That’s nearly 6 million passengers who have been carried by this aircraft over the years. Berlin has a population of around 6 million.

City of Bangkok There is something in this aircraft you won’t find in any other, namely, a plaque, I suppose you’d call it, saying “Presented to KLM Royal Dutch Airlines by Bangkok Metropolitan administration on the occasion of the first arrival of this aircraft named THE CITY OF BANGKOK in Thailand, April 1991.”

Naming an aeroplane

But something special happened in Amsterdam too. On 1 July 1989, the City of Bangkok was named by nine Thai monks from the 100-year old monastery in the district of Laksi. This is the same district where the KLM Catering and crew hotel is located in Bangkok. The ceremony took place in Hangar 11 at Schiphol Oost. More than 200 people attended and a special Thai meal was prepared for the monks. I spent ages trying to find the exact spot where the monks baptised the aircraft, but I think the ink must have faded, because I couldn’t find it.

Flat in business

Colleagues gave me a tour of the interior, from the cockpit to the crew sleeping area. (You knew that the crew sleep on board during long flights, right?) A quick peek in the cockpit and a moment in the CO-CO seat – this was especially good, because my name is Coco. Unfortunately, for security reasons, we’re not allowed to share this photo with you.

A lovely lie down, flat, in World Business Class; wonderful, but regrettably the plane stayed in the hangar, otherwise I would happily have stayed there. It felt really special to be allowed to do all this as a simple intern. Not everyone gets the chance to be so close to an aircraft, let alone to be shown around one. I felt like an aircraft fanatic, although I have always liked aircraft – when they get me to my destination and home again. But that has changed now. I can quite easily say that I have the best internship.

If you would like to see this queen of the air one more time, Boeing 747-400 City of Bangkok will take off for the last time on 25 November and land on 26 November.

* The Boeing 747 fleet will be replaced in the coming years by the Boeing 777 and the 787 Dreamliner. These newer aircraft use less fuel and less CO2. In 2020 we want to generate 20% less CO2 emissions than in 2011.

Top Copyright Photo (all others by KLM and the writer): The last departure from Los Angeles of PH-BFB: KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 747-406 PH-BFB (msn 24000) LAX (Michael B. Ing). Image: 944574.

KLM aircraft slide show:

KLM to add a new route to Wroclaw, Poland

KLM has made this announcement:

Wrocław lies in the west of Poland and has much to offer travellers. In 2016 it was Cultural Capital of Europe.

The city of Wrocław (pronounced: vrɔtswaf) has a population of more than 600,000 and is Poland’s fourth largest city. Wrocław is KLM’s fourth destination in Poland after Warsaw, Krakow, and Gdansk. Air France began operating a service to Wrocław’s Copernicus Airport this summer. Wrocław is a lively university city where trade and industry flourish. It has a beautiful old market square, which is lined by pastel-coloured buildings housing cafes and restaurants.

Wrocław flight schedule

KLM will operate a daily service from Schiphol to Wrocław using Embraer 175 equipment. This aircraft has 20 business class seats, an Economy Comfort zone with 8 seats, and 60 Economy Class seats.

KL1271 departs Amsterdam Schiphol at 11.50 hours and arrives at Copernicus Airport Wrocław at 13.35 hours.
KL1272 departs Wrocław at 14:05 hours and arrives at Schiphol at 15.55 hours.

KLM conquers heart of Chinese millennial

KLM is launching its “Never Done” campaign in China. It aims to increase KLM’s brand awareness in China, especially among younger – millennial – target groups. The younger target group approaches travel in a completely different way to previous generations. Research shows that young people want to explore as many new experiences as possible during their travels. The underlying principle of the “Never Done” campaign is to show these young travellers, through real experience, that KLM understands them and is the right partner for them – of course, within the reliable, warm and service-oriented environment for which KLM is renowned.

Bucketlist

KLM has produced two video clips that tell the stories of Chinese millennials who have struck “Never Done” experiences from their bucket lists all over Europe – from their first KLM flight to eating herring in Amsterdam, and visiting a Barcelona barbershop. In the first video, KLM presents itself as a reliable, warm and service-oriented partner. In the second video, shot in documentary style, it comes to life through the eyes of well-known Chinese millennials.

The videos were commissioned by KLM and developed by VIRTUE Amsterdam, the creative advertising agency of the Canadian company VICE. The company drew inspiration from cultural research, insights and data from VICE and VIRTUE’s worldwide network, supplemented by readily available KLM research results.

The two videos will be distributed via WeChat, Youku, Weibo and KLM’s local channels and will target Chinese cities with a high millennial population.

Launch video: https://youtu.be/ycfK1D07Nuw

Influencer video: https://youtu.be/lJve22pxo2A

Campaignpage: https://neverdone.klm.com/

KLM celebrates its 99th anniversary

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines introduced its latest Delftblue miniature on its 99^th anniversary on October 7, 2018. The famous collector item, a unique gift to World Business Class travellers on long haul flights, is a sought after collector’s item.

KLM presented their latest Delftblue miniature of the first grocery store by the iconic Dutch coffee brand ‘Douwe Egberts’ in Joure, a beautiful village in the middle of Friesland. Fittingly, at the end of October, KLM will be serving Douwe Egberts sustainable UTZ-certified coffee on all its European and intercontinental flights.

To celebrate KLM’s 99^th anniversary, KLM just launched their ‘winter hot picks’ on sale from today until 2 November, 2018 for travel from October 31, 2018 until May 31, 2019. Economy class return fares from Jakarta to Europe including taxes start from IDR 8,500,000 and in Business class return fares from Jakarta to Amsterdam including taxes start from IDR 42,400,000. From Denpasar Economy class return fares including taxes start at IDR 9,000,000.

About KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in Indonesia

KLM’s first flights between Amsterdam and Indonesia started on October 1, 1924 when KLM initiated its first intercontinental flight from Amsterdam to Jakarta. In September 1929 KLM started regular, scheduled services between Amsterdam and Indonesia. Until the outbreak of the Second World War, this was the world’s longest distance scheduled service.

KLM offers daily direct flights between Jakarta and Amsterdam Schiphol Airport with a stop in Kuala Lumpur and daily flights between Denpasar and Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport with a stop in Singapore.

KLM Jakarta – Amsterdam

KL810 departs Jakarta at 19:25 and arrives in Amsterdam at 05:55 the next day
KL809 departs Amsterdam at 20:50 and arrives in Jakarta at 18:10 the next day

KLM Jakarta – Kuala Lumpur

KL810 departs Jakarta at 19:25 and arrives in Kuala Lumpur at 22:30 the next day
KL809 departs Kuala Lumpur at 17:05 and arrives in Jakarta at 18:10 the next day

KLM Denpasar – Amsterdam

KL836 departs Denpasar at 21:35 and arrives in Amsterdam at 08:00 the next day
KL835 departs Amsterdam at 21:00 and arrives in Denpasar at 20:20 the next day

KLM Denpasar – Singapore

KL836 departs Denpasar at 21:35 and arrives in Singapore at 00:05 the next day
KL835 departs Singapore at 17:35 and arrives in Denpasar at 20:20 the next day

Departure and Arrival times based on winter schedule — 29 October, 2018 – 31 March, 2019)

The daily flights are operated by Boeing 777-300ER aircraft with 34 seats in Business Class and 374 seats in Economy Class.

Top Copyright Photo (all others by KLM): KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 777-306 ER PH-BVA (msn 35671) (OrangePride) AMS (Ton Jochems). Image: 943972.

KLM aircraft slide show:

KLM launches new meal service

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines launches a new meal service for Business Class passengers on its KLM Cityhopper (KLC) flights from the forthcoming winter schedule onwards starting 28 October 2018. The new, high quality meals are both more substantial and varied. They will be served in the Europe Business Class (EBC) Box.

More choice based on more individual elements

More individual elements have been added to the meal box. For example, granola and jam are now served separately to the yoghurt, and dressing and nuts separately to the salads, enabling customers themselves to determine how they would like to put their meals together.

Sustainable products

Until noon, our customers will receive a box containing a breakfast with fresh fruit and cold cuts consisting of cheese and meat with a hot roll. During the rest of the day, the EBC Box will contain a salad and side dishes including a slice of apple pie, for example. All of the products will be sustainable, and produce from local suppliers will be used as far as possible. The meat and eggs will carry “Beter Leven” certification and all products containing fish will bear the MSC stamp of approval. The cardboard used for the boxes will also be sustainable and recyclable.

Choice & control service on six flights

On KLC’s six longest flights (Cagliari, Helsinki, Ibiza, Porto, Split and Valencia), Business Class passengers themselves will be able to determine the time when they would like to eat. KLC thus meets the needs of its customers to have more control and choice. In addition to the meal box, customers will be able to enjoy a second service: a Dutch croquette snack or a spinach-and-feta pastry.

Luxurious look & feel and more refined format

Not only have the contents and look & feel of the meal box been revitalised, but the format has also been adjusted providing more space for something to drink, for example. The luxury box now also fits onto the tray table of the Embraer even better. This is a big plus point since KLC’s fleet now consist exclusively of Embraers. With 49 Embraer E-Jets, 32 E190s and 17 E175s, KLC now operates the biggest E-Jet fleet in Europe.

KLM has the ambition of being Europe’s most successful, customer-centric, innovative and efficient network carrier. This means creating memorable experiences for customers on the ground and in the air by pursuing the “Moving Your World” approach. KLC’s new meal concept contributes towards achieving this ambition.

Photos: KLM.

KLM and QANTAS sign a code-sharing agreement

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and QANTAS Airways, Australia’s national carrier, have signed a code-sharing agreement, allowing both airlines to expand their networks substantially.

For KLM passengers, this means they can fly from anywhere in the world, on a single ticket, with full baggage transfers, via Singapore to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Perth.

The code-share begins on October 31, 2018. KLM will attach its flight number to daily flights between Singapore and the four key Australian destinations listed above. QANTAS will attach its QF code to KLM flights between Amsterdam and Singapore.

Top Copyright Photo (all others by KLM): KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner PH-BHO (msn 42509) JFK (Fred Freketic). Image: 943707.

KLM aircraft slide show:

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines introduces its latest Delftware miniature

True to tradition, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will be introducing its latest Delftware miniature on its 99^thanniversary.

The latest addition to the series this year will be the first store of Douwe Egberts in Joure, Holland. The reason for this is that KLM will be serving Douwe Egberts’ sustainable UTZ-certified coffee on all its European and intercontinental flights beginning Sunday, October 28, 2018.

The airline has opted for a special blend that tastes perfect when served at a high altitude. This ensures that the coffee tastes just as good in the air as it does on the ground. Customers will also be able to enjoy the sustainable coffee in both the European Crown Lounge and the intercontinental Crown Lounge. The coffee will also be available at work for KLM employees in the Netherlands as of October.

KLM President and CEO Pieter Elbers presented the first house to Mayor Fred Veenstra at a festive meeting in Joure today.

KLM President and CEO Pieter Elbers: “Choosing the first store of Douwe Egberts in beautiful Joure serves to highlight the excellent cooperative relationship shared by our two established brands. Good coffee is important to our customers. What’s more, KLM also considers it crucial to serve sustainable coffee. Two typically Dutch brands with a rich history, both placing quality first, can only serve to strengthen one another.”

KLM has presented its Delftware miniatures on board to passengers travelling in World Business Class on intercontinental flights since the 1950s. The houses are replicas of exceptional buildings in the Netherlands. The number of houses in the collection has corresponded with KLM’s age since 1994. A new house has been added to the collection on or around October 7 each year thereafter.

Next year on October 7, 2019, KLM will celebrate – as the first airline in the world to operate under its original name – its 100th anniversary.