KLM turns 90
Posted on Samedi 24 octobre 2009 at 17 h 14 min and filed under Magazine.The world’s oldest airline owes its longevity to its reliable fleet, long-haul network and passenger service. By Marc Branchu.
Created in September 1919, KLM is the world’s oldest airline, predating Lufthansa (1926), Air France (1933) and Continental Airlines (1937). How did a country that’s not much larger than the French region of Aquitaine create such a successful and long-lasting major airline? It’s a story that goes back 90 years.
Ten years after the Channel crossing. September 1919
With the end of World War I, hundreds of pilots, aircraft and aviation enthusiasts, like Albert Plesman, could turn their attention elsewhere. A former officer in the Dutch army, this 30-year-old pilot campaigned tirelessly for aviation. He had just organized the first air fair in Amsterdam, which was a tremendous success, bringing in over 500,000 visitors. He had also convinced Queen Wilhelmina to support an improbable project: the creation of a national airline.
It was a risky venture, as avia-tion was not yet a sure thing. Louis Blériot had conquered the Channel (33 kilometers) only 10 years earlier, and it had been just 16 years since the Wright brothers’ pioneering flight. But Plesman’s power of persuasion was such that on September 12, 1919, the queen signed the founding charter for the Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij, or Royal Dutch Airlines. Plesman became president, a position he held for 34 years.
345 passengers, tulip bulbs and bees
On May 17, 1920, the young airline inaugurated its first flight—London/Amsterdam—with two British journalists on board. Routes to Hamburg and Copenhagen soon followed. After six months in business, the results were modest but encouraging: 345 passengers and 22 tons of cargo, including newspapers, paint, tulip bulbs and bees.
Early on, Plesman laid the foundations for the airline’s success: comfortable and reliable aircraft, a clear sales strategy, and a well-structured network.
The return of the Flying Dutchman
The airline was constantly introducing innovations to create a loyal customer base. In 1921, the first sales office opened, in downtown Amsterdam. Passengers were treated with kid gloves: buses shuttled them between the Schiphol airfield and its restaurants and gardens, popular with passengers and Amsterdamers alike. KLM fashioned its image around a unifying logo and posters, along with a brilliant marketing idea: to link the airline to the national legend of the Flying Dutchman.
The network was designed as a spiderweb with Schiphol at its center; it extended to every major European business center: London, Copenhagen, Brussels, Paris and Hamburg. Tenyears after its creation, KLM was a well-established business; in 1929, the airline set its sights on the tropics.
Distant horizons
The Netherlands was a powerful colonial power, and KLM decided to start flights to Asia, where the red, white and blue flag flew over the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), and to the Americas, to Dutch Guiana (now Suriname) and the Dutch West Indies. Passengers reached the Dutch East Indies in 12 days, after 17 stops and almost 15,000 km. Five years later, KLM made its first transatlantic flight from Amsterdam to the Caribbean island of Curaçao, with stops in Cape Verde and Suriname.
Schiphol, an avant-garde hub
While KLM introduced the DC-2 and DC-3 into Europe, it also confimed its position as one of the world’s leading long-haul airlines. It started a New York flight in May 1946 and launched a new slogan, “Fly KLM,” while extending its network to Australia (1951), then to Japan via the North Pole (1958).
At the same time, it developed Schiphol into a major international hub, and during the 1960s, participated in the launch of the European Air Union consortium.
AIR FRANCE and KLM: joining forces
The development of jets (the Douglas DC-8, followed by the Boeing 747) spurred the airline’s growth. In 1975, it employed 16,766 people (as opposed to 1,900 in 1939), and was elected Company of the Year 11 years later. In 2003, just before merging with Air France, KLM was the world’s fourth-largest carrier of international passengers.
On May 5, 2004, the two airlines joined forces. Both airlines were based on strong European networks and both pioneered long-haul flights (Paris/Saigon for Air France); their success was built on extensive international networks, based on a central hub (Orly, then Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle for Air France).
The merger resulted in a complementary group, which has enabled KLM, one of the greatest stories in airline history, to continue, 90 years after its creation.
