KLM

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (in full: Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij, literally Royal Aviation Company; usual English: Royal Dutch Airlines) is an airline subsidiary of Air France-KLM based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. more...

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It operates domestic and worldwide scheduled passenger and cargo services to over 90 destinations. Its main base is Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.

Prior to its merger with Air France, KLM was the national airline of the Netherlands. KLM is the oldest airline in the world still operating under its original name. It has 30,118 employees (at March 2007).

Air France merged with KLM in May 2004, resulting in the creation of Air France-KLM. Air France-KLM is incorporated under French law and its headquarters are located at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport near Paris. Air France-KLM is the largest airline company in the world in terms of operating revenues, and the third largest in the world (largest in Europe) in terms of revenue-passenger-kilometres (RPKs). 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 Continental Airlines.

History

KLM was founded on October 7, 1919, making it the oldest carrier in the world still operating under its original name. The first KLM flight was on May 17, 1920, with a flight from London Northolt to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport carrying two English journalists and a number of newspapers. It was flown by an Aircraft Transport and Travel Airco de Havilland DH16, callsign G-EALU, piloted by Jerry Shaw. In 1920 KLM carried 440 passengers and 22 tons of freight. In 1921 KLM started regularly scheduled services. By 1926 they were offering flights to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels, Paris, London, Bremen, Copenhagen, and Malmo; using primarily Fokker F2 & F3.

Intercontinental service to the Netherlands East Indies (today's Republic of Indonesia) started in 1929 using Fokker F7-B, although the first non-scheduled KLM flight had been made 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." On May 21, 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 DC7C, the last KLM aircraft with piston engines which was used for the opening of the first trans-polar route from Amsterdam-Tokyo on November 1, 1958.

Read more at Wikipedia.org