Slogan: The Reliable Airline
Airline KLM Royal Dutch Airlines — старейшая авиакомпания в Европе. 12 сентября 1919 года королева Нидерландов Вильгельмина (Wilhelmina) присудила еще не созданной компании статус «Королевская». Сама же компания была основана немногим позже — 7 октября 1919 года. О ее «королевском» происхождении говорит простой, но запоминающийся логотип — стилизованная корона.
Основателем компании был военный летчик Альберт Плезман (Albert Plesman). Он же и придумал девиз компании — «Воздушный океан объединяет людей». Впрочем, нынче в качестве слогана компанией используется более простой — «Надежная Авиалиния» (The Relliable Airline).
The company's home port was Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, while the head office is located in The Hague. The first flight took place on May 17, 1920 on the London-Amsterdam route. The company's first pilot was named Jerry Shaw, and he flew a Havilland DH-16. In that year, the company transported a huge, for those times, number of people - almost 350 people.
The first intercontinental flight took place on October 1, 1924 on the route Amsterdam-Batavia (Colonial Jakarta), using a Fokker F-VII aircraft. After 5 years - in 1929, these flights become regular. The very first transatlantic flight took place much later, in December 1934, when a Fokker F-XVIII Snip flew safely from Amsterdam to Chicago.
At the end of the Second World War, Schiphol Airport lay in ruins, and KLM left without planes. But already in September of the same year, the company again begins passenger and freight transportation. And on May 21, 1946, it again restores regular flights from Amsterdam to New York.
In March 1960, the company puts its first jet aircraft into service. They became the Douglas DC-8.
On September 12, 1966, a subsidiary specializing in intra-European transportation was formed - the company NLM («Netherlands Airlines»), later renamed to NLM Cityhopper. This company lasted until April 1991, after which it merged with the company Netherlines and education KLM Cityhopper. In the future, several more regional representatives joined this company. KLM.
The company's planes in a recognizable blue-and-blue "form" can be found in almost any more or less large airport in the world. Almost all of them are manufactured by the company. Boeing. However, they also meet Airbus и Fokker.
To date KLM - part of the holding Air France-KLM. This, one of the largest airlines in the world, was formed as a result of the merger on May 5, 2004 of the companies Air France и KLM. The company's headquarters is located at the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport (Aeroport Charles-de Gaulle). The merger of the company was forced by the exceptionally difficult situation that prevailed for air carriers at the beginning of the 21st century, after the September 11 attacks in the United States.
