KLM-Royal Dutch Airlines
The flagship carrier of the Netherlands is KLM-Royal Dutch Airlines, hosting a main hub at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport and headquartered in nearby Amstelveen. Offering both domestic and international service, KLM-Royal Dutch airlines serves over 90 destinations, and is also a member of the world’s second largest airline alliance, SkyTeam.
KLM-Royal Dutch is part of Air France-KLM and also has an operating partnership with Northwest Airlines of the United States. The entire KLM group carries almost 75 million passengers annually, operates a fleet in operation of 607 aircraft, and serves 258 destinations worldwide. Air France-KLM recently purchased a 25 percent stake in the Italian airline Alitalia.
KLM-Royal Dutch is the world?s oldest airline and was founded in’19. KLM-Royal Dutch operated its first flight in May’20 from London to Amsterdam. The airline stopped operating during World War II. KLM-Royal Dutch Airlines has been accused of helping Nazi war criminals flee Germany after World War II, a charge the company denies.
Air France and KLM announced their plans to merge in 2003, marking the end of the oldest independent airline in the world. However, the merger did not impact KLM’s long time partnership with United States based Northwest Airlines, as both companies joined the SkyTeam alliance in September 2004.
KLM gifts its long-haul first-class and business passengers with small Delftware, blue-and-white porcelain reproductions of old Dutch canal houses. The houses are filled with Dutch liquor. This practice started in’52. There are now 88 Delftware houses as of 2008 (the airline?s age that year). A new Delftware house is added each year on October 7, the anniversary of the airline?s founding.
KLM’s mileage program is Flying Blue. Members can accumulate and spend miles on flights on Air France-KLM, and also on other SkyTeam carriers and with a variety of transportation, travel, and financial companies. Flying Blue members earn four membership levels, Ivory, Silver, Gold, and Platinum, determined by their accumulated SkyTeam miles. Members can also earn miles on flights operated by Kenya Airways, which is a Flying Blue partner.
The venerable history of KLM-Royal Dutch Airlines has not shielded it from the current year’s economic turbulence. On account of declining ticket sales and lower cargo traffic, Air France-KLM announced recently that will lay off up to 2,000 workers. These job cuts represent about 3 per cent of the total workforce. The company further plans to reduce its airline capacity by about 2 per cent in the summer of 2009, hoping to compensate for the $653 million loss it posted for the fourth quarter of 2008. Company management has said it has not ruled out even more future job reductions or flight terminations as the company seeks to stabilize its finances and return to profitability.
An airline watchdog group based in Australia, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, announced in February 2009 that it is suing Air France-KLM over price fixing allegations. KLM denies the charges and will defend against the suit. British Airways and Qantas were recently fined $5 million and $20 million over similar price fixing allegations.
Tom Martens is the content syndication coordinator for South Arica?s leading Flight comparison & Booking portal, which includes KLM Airlines amongst others.
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