KLM – Royal Dutch AirlinesBy Asif Siddiqi, U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission
The letters most commonly associated with the history of Dutch aviation
are “K.L.M.,” which stand for Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij voor
Nederland an Kolonien (“Royal Dutch Airlines” in English). By the end
of the 20th century, KLM had become one of world's largest airlines in
terms of routes served. KLM also has the distinction of being the world's
oldest airline that is still operating, as well as the longest continually
operating airline.
Like in most major European countries, commercial aviation in the
Netherlands had its beginnings in the immediate aftermath of World War I.
A group of investors and bankers led by 30-year old Albert Plesman formed
KLM on October 7, 1919. The airline began its first service on May 17,
1920, with an Amsterdam-London service flying an old De Havilland DH-16
aircraft chartered from the British company Air Transport and Travel
(AT&T). By September, KLM had expanded its offerings by serving
Copenhagen in Denmark and Hamburg in Germany. In its early days, KLM used
Dutch-made planes such as the four-seater Fokker F.2 and the
five-passenger Fokker F.3 for its flights. By the early 1920s, KLM slowly
expanded its routes via a series of cooperative agreements with other
airlines. For example, KLM signed an agreement with the German company
Deutscher Aero Lloyd to provide services to Hamburg.
KLM was widely known in Europe as a carrier of impeccable service. In
July 1924, the airline began using the new Fokker F.7 aircraft, able to
carry seven passengers in relatively comfortable conditions. KLM had a
reputation for setting the standards of good service, both with the
timeliness of their flights and with interior accommodations for
passengers. Under the leadership of the charismatic and often
authoritarian Plesman, for the first three decades of its operations, KLM
maintained a forward-looking equipment policy, improving its fleet year by
year with larger, faster, and more efficient aircraft. KLM also enjoyed an
advantage over other European countries since the Dutch company Fokker
produced some of the most popular passenger airplanes of the 1920s, such
as the Fokker F.7a/3m and F.7b/3m.
Like most European airlines, KLM also suffered through hard times in
the late 1920s. In fact, the company would have ended up bankrupt had it
not been for a government bailout in 1927 that ensured a strong state role
in future operations of the airline.
 |
|
KLM
|
|
 |
A.N171573[320].jpg) |
|
PH-BUH - a KLM
747-206B(SF/SUD) seen at Anchorage on June 9,
2001.
Image courtesy of AirNikon.
Find more of his photos at Airliners.net |
|
|
|
During his career, Plesman believed that KLM should have the fastest
available aircraft. The latest Fokker models of the early 1930s, such as
the Fokker F.20 and F.36, were limited by top speeds of about 124 miles
per hour (200 kilometers per hour). Plesman, looking for something faster,
contracted with the U.S. Douglas company for 14 DC-2s, thus opening Douglas'
entry into the European aviation market. When KLM began operating the
Douglas DC-3 in 1937, the airline's services extended to several cities in
Great Britain, France, Austria, Hungary, and the countries of Scandinavia.
In 1930, KLM was carrying about 18,000 passengers per year; by 1939, it
was serving more than 160,000 passengers, fourth only to the German DLH
(later Lufthansa), the Soviet Aeroflot,
and Britain's Imperial Airways.
One of the most noteworthy episodes in KLM's history was the battle
with Imperial Airways to dominate the far reaches of the Dutch and British
colonial empires in the mid-1930s. The competition began a decade earlier
when both companies explored possible routes into Asia. The British were
initially stalled in their goals of further expansion because Imperial
Airways already had commitments to serve a large number of points across
Asia—all of which included passenger, mail, and freight services and its
resources were stretched to the limit. As a result, the airline could not
offer the kind of reliable and high quality service that KLM could provide
to a few key locations in Asia. KLM focused all its resources on a few
important routes, especially those to the Dutch East Indies. Perhaps the
most famous day in the early history of KLM was October 1, 1931, when the
airline began regular passenger service between Amsterdam and Batavia (now
known as Jakarta in Indonesia) using Fokker F.12 aircraft fitted with four
luxury seats. The trip lasted 10 entire days, including 81 hours of flying
time. It was the longest regularly scheduled flight offered by any airline
in the world.
KLM's business interests were helped by victories in several famous air
races of the period. For example, in 1935, KLM won the MacRobertson
England-Australia Air Race, using a Douglas DC-2 monoplane. The win
enabled KLM to make significant gains in opening and maintaining air
routes between Great Britain and Australia. By June 1938, KLM was offering
an eight-day service from Amsterdam to Sydney, Australia in parallel with
regular international flights from Europe to Egypt, India, the Caribbean,
and South America. For many business travelers, KLM was the most
convenient way to travel to the farthest reaches of the planet. Almost all
the routes were served by Douglas DC-2, DC-3, and DC-5 aircraft. Plesman
switched completely to Douglas after he had a falling out with the Fokker
company.
In October 1928, the Dutch established a company known as the Royal
Dutch Indies Airlines (known by the abbreviation KNILM) with strong
connections to KLM for passenger service to east Asia and Australia. KNILM
faced stiff opposition from Britain's Imperial Airways and through the
next decade, the two Dutch airlines fought hard with Imperial Airways to
dominate the air routes into Asia. The British, with their huge empire,
were able to block the Dutch in key routes by denying them the passage of
“overflight” or by cooperative agreements with other national airlines
to prevent KLM from taking business away from Imperial Airways.
The advent of World War II changed the fortunes of the Dutch airline,
as it did almost every other major airline in the world. KLM stopped all
its European flights in August 1939 except to Scandinavia, Belgium, and
London. Despite defiant attempts to continue regularly scheduled service
after the war began, KLM had to close all its European operations in May
1940 when the Nazis invaded and occupied the Netherlands. Amazingly, the
company continued to provide services in eastern Asia even though it no
longer had a “home” country. For a while, KLM operated out of New
York. Longtime KLM president Plesman quickly resumed regular operations as
the war neared its end. In April 1945, he received a loan of 14 Douglas
C-54 four-engine transports (the military version of the DC-4) from the
U.S. government. Using these planes, KLM once again began service from
Amsterdam to Jakarta, inaugurating a new postwar era for one of the
greatest airlines in European aviation history.
Note: This article was commissioned by and
first appeared on NASA's U.S. Centennial of Flight web site. It
appears here with permission. We gratefully acknowledge both the author
and NASA.
|
.gif)
.gif){kind=small}
.gif)
.gif)
.gif)
