The Oldest Airline In The World

It was established in 1919, a full century ago – and is still operating under its original name! Set up at a time when horse carriages were the most common mode of transport in Europe and ox-carts reigned supreme in Asia, Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij is the oldest airline in the world.

KLM, as it usually known, literally means Royal Aviation Company in Dutch, with its ‘Royal’ designation granted that year by Queen Wilhelmina. The usual English translation is KLM Royal Dutch Airlines.  As the national airline of The Netherlands, KLM pioneered several milestones in the early days of aviation.

From the very start, Asia was in its sights. In 1924, the first KLM plane departed for Batavia, the capital city of what was then the Dutch colony of Indonesia.  The journey to the metropolis now called Jakarta took weeks to complete. This route became part of KLM's regular scheduled service in 1929; and for more than a decade it remained the longest scheduled air-route in the world.

Along its way on that pioneering flight, the national flag-carrier of the Netherlands stopped in what was then known as Malaya; probably shocking the locals who could not imagine a machine flying in from the sky! KLM became one of the first airlines to have scheduled commercial flights into the country, and continues till this day to operate daily flights into Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of modern Malaysia.

In 1934, KLM reached the Americas for the first time, crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Curacao, an island in the Dutch Caribbean region off the coast of Venezuela. In 1946, KLM became the first European airline to start scheduled trans-Atlantic flights to New York. Today, the airline has direct flights from Schiphol to over 30 destinations across the Americas.    

As a modern and efficient airline of the 21st Century, KLM operates more than 168 planes to 165 destinations, including about 50 aircraft used for its Cityhopper regional operations. Its hub is at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Apart from Cityhopper, KLM has interests in several other airlines, including Kenya Airways, Martinair and Transavia. It employs about 31,000 people in the Netherlands, and nearly 4000 more in about 500 locations around the globe - the human dynamics of KLM - The Oldest Airline in The World!

                                                                                                      (Pix copyright unknown/KLM.)

The Best Airline Re-Branding

Over the last four decades, we have had the opportunity to participate in or observe the rebranding of numerous airlines. Some were given a new identity because of new management or new marketing strategies, while others were re-branded because of new ownership or the merging into an airline group.

In the first category are case-studies such as JAL to Japan Airlines, Air Lanka to Sri Lankan, and Air Pacific to Fiji Airways. The national airline of Japan actually retained its name, but after 10 years with a modernistic non-descript use of its initials, it chose to revert to its original logo featuring its full name. In traditional Japanese culture, the red-crowned crane (Grus japonsensis) is viewed as a symbol of long life, and it is a powerful and effective symbol of how Japan uniquely cherishes ancient culture in cultivating an ultra-modern lifestyle.

The list of airlines re-branding under a larger group is very long, but to us, the most successful of these is the metamorphosis of Dragonair to Cathay Dragon, joining its sister-carrier Cathay Pacific in a stylish new simultaneous re-branding.
We believe The Best Airline Re-Branding is of Dragonair to  Cathay Dragon because it brings the healthy and growing carrier into an elegant and effective equal-partnership within the Cathay Pacific group. Each airline has an equally elegant livery of almost identical application, but in complementing different colours.

In 2006, Dragonair became part of the Cathay Pacific Group, and the two airlines have worked in increasing closeness to provide a synergy of connectivity and service from Hong Kong to about 200 destinations in mainland China and the rest of the world. It makes sense, therefore, that the new name deftly brings Cathay Dragon into the family while retaining its distinctive identity. The new livery of both airlines has been designed to align them more closely with each other, and we like the integration of that iconic Cathay Brushwing on the tail of all aircraft within the Group while maintaining a little updated version of the original Dragonair logo on the nose of Cathay Dragon aircraft.
The new hues are also distinctive and attractive – stylish with an understated dignity.  Overall, the new Corporate Identity of Cathay Dragon is clean, elegant and effective – well-deserving of our award for  The Best Airline Re-Branding.

Photographs by kalid.com.cn and Cathay Pacific Group

The Best Airlines With Local Flavour

The Airlines With The Best Local Flavour are sadly gone or going fast, swept away by this millennium’s mad dash towards bigger companies and cheaper operations. We were captivated by the cheerfulness and local pride that was evinced by the dirndl-dressed cabin crew of the former Tyrolean Airlines of Innsbruck in Austria. Tyrolean identity permeated this carrier in the costumes, culture and customer-service, making a great tourism product. The management and staff of this delightful little airline were all cheerfully local, and the essence of Tirol was there whenever you dealt with them. They fought hard against being dissolved into the impersonal flow of a international aviation conglomerate, but corporate efficiency and cost-effectiveness won out. Today, only the memories remain….

Another outstanding airline in this category was the amazing Xinjiang Airlines from the north-western reaches of China. It captured the stunning contrasts that are typical of this great and ageless nation. Xinjiang Airlines guarded ancient traditions with fierce devotion yet was justifiably proud of its ultra-modern technology and equipment. It was 100% Chinese and 100% Muslim, a combination that seems practically impossible; yet something the airline embodied with considerable panache’ and admirable efficiency. Facets of the airline like corporate livery and management personnel seemed indistinguishable from the numerous Chinese airlines existing at that time, but in areas such as operational procedures and in-flight catering the airline proved to be more conservatively Muslim than most well-known flag-carriers of Islamic nations today. It would have been a uniquely effective instrument with which to capture the affluent billion-dollar Islamic tourism market, but once again, an exceptional local carrier has been lost within the cavernous recesses of an international aviation conglomerate.

Local Flavour in Airlines seems to be going out of style in these days of cost-cutting and mergers, but we will continue to keep looking.....

Pix by airliners.net