KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

KLM is the abbreviated form of Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij, which literally means Royal Aviation Company. KLM, the national airline of Netherlands, is a subsidiary of Air France-KLM. Prior to its merger with Air France, KLM was the national airline of the Netherlands. KLM has Amsterdam Airport Schiphol as her home base. It is headquartered in Amstelveen, the Netherlands. Currently, the airline operates scheduled passenger as well as cargo fights to a number of destinations in different parts of the world. KLM holds the distinction of being the oldest airline in the world. Explore the article to find out information on the profile and history of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.

History
Founded on October 7, 1919, the airlines made its maiden flight on May 17, 1920; when a Airco de Havilland DH16 took off from London to Amsterdam, carrying two English journalists and a number of newspapers. In 1921, KLM started providing scheduled services on a regular basis. By 1926, KLM has managed to ply a number of flights to major destinations in Europe, including Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels, Paris, London, Bremen and Copenhagen. KLM started operating intercontinental services to the Netherlands East Indies in 1929, which remained the world's longest scheduled route for many years.

By making use of Fokker F-XVIII airliner in December 1934, KLM started its first transatlantic route, from Amsterdam to Curacao. KLM began its scheduled service to New York in May 1946, thereby becoming the first European airline to do so. The airline expanded its route further and started providing trans-polar services from Amsterdam via Anchorage to Tokyo, on November 1, 1958. In the later half of 1989, the airline started an alliance with Northwest Airlines by acquiring its 20 percent share. In May 2004, Air France took over KLM, 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.

Subsidiaries
KLM Cityhopper is a regional subsidiary of KLM Airlines. Cityhopper covers a number of destinations in and around Europe, by operating short haul services. Another subsidiary of KLM - KLM Cargo, operates scheduled cargo flights. Transavia Airlines is a low-cost and a fully owned subsidiary of KLM. Based at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Transavia Airlines operates scheduled and chartered flight services to leisure destinations.

Destination And Fleet
Presently, KLM, together with KLM Cargo and KLM Cityhopper, plies flights to as many as 125 destinations in 59 countries across the world. KLM covers major cities in Asia, Africa, Central, North and South America and Europe. In India, KLM flies to Delhi. The modern fleet of KLM consists of 117 aircrafts. These include McDonnell-Douglas MD-11, Boeing 777-300ER, Boeing 777-200ER, Boeing 747-400ERF, Boeing 747-400M, Boeing 747-400, Boeing 737-900, Boeing 737-800, Boeing 737-700, Boeing 737-400, Boeing 737-300 and Airbus A330-200.