History of KLM

If an airplane were to fly over you house or school today, nobody would pay it much attention, but that used to be very different. When the sound of an airplane was heard 85 years ago, nothing would be able to keep the children in their seats. At that time, flight was still something very special. It was during this time, in 1919 to be precise, that an airline was founded in the Netherlands – KLM. KLM is now the oldest international airline in the world, and the Amsterdam-London air link, first flown by KLM on its inaugural flight in 1920, is the oldest air route still served by the same airline. During that first year, 1920, KLM carried 345 passengers and 25,000kg (55,000lbs) of mail and cargo. That’s not much if you consider that today, one KLM Boeing 747 can carry more than 400 passengers plus 20,000kg (44,000lbs) of mail and cargo. KLM grew quickly. By 1924, the first KLM flight took off for Indonesia, then still called the Dutch East Indies. It was a true journey of adventure. The plane took weeks to reach Indonesia. Today, the same journey takes jut 15 hours. In 1946, KLM was the first European airline after World War II to launch an air service across the Atlantic Ocean, from Amsterdam to New York. In 1960, KLM took delivery of its first jet aircraft. These were not only larger than the earlier types, but they also flew much faster. The higher speeds made traveling times much shorter. Shorter traveling times made the world look much smaller, because with the arrival of jet aircraft, it became possible to reach almost any international airport in the world within 24 hours.