San Gottardo

Oh my. Just when you thought that there would be some peace and quiet - no strikes, no referendum, no lynching of executives, no lunatic demands for pay increases/working conditions - then another battlefront opens up. Indeed, relations between KLM and the parent company have always been strained, but so far they were not the reason for tensions in the group, at least not the principal reason.

A group CEO wanting to get rid of a business unit CEO is something very common. There is an art in making that happen, adapting the tactics and communication employed to the situation and the person. Let's see if Ben Smith masters that art. He didn't have to deal with a problem of that caliber so far.

Satie

KL relation towards AF is very unhealthy. It makes no doubt that KL is a performing airline and has dramatically improved over the last decade. But KL has also greatly benefited of the merger 15 years ago. At that time, it was a secondary european airline struggling with losses (unlike AF in these years). Thanks to the merger, they benefited from an important cash injection and from AF much strong commercial strength and network (and still benefit from it nowadays).

Now AF really has to improve its efficiency and costs, but KL acting as if AF is a burden and they'd be much better on their own is so wrong in my opinion and very counterproductive.

Romanianflyer

Exactly this, with even a rather clueless in-house 'aviation expert' at the Netherlands' biggest paper Telegraaf telling in a video interview on the newspaper's website even saying they want to take KLM's status as premium airline away and making something of a long-haul Transavia out of it. Utter BS.

The Dutch like to point the finger at the French when it comes to their arrogance and protectionism (at times rightly so) - but they should definitely look into the mirror on this as the Dutch pride towards their national airline is nothing less. On the contrary, some actually do believe from the bottom of the heart that the only premium company in the skies is KLM and that flying any other airline is like stepping back into the Third World

I take 99% of anything I read about it in the papers with a pinch of salt.

johan rebel

True. KLM has been an object of Dutch pride for almost a century. "Het blauwe gevoel" is part of their collective national identity. Waarin een klein land al niet groot kan zijn, that kind of thinking.


Johan

ok986

Dutch political scientist Arend Lijphard wrote already four decades ago that the three symbols keeping The Netherlands together were KLM, the waterwarks, and the monarchy. And when the Dutch negotiated the landing rights in the US, the transport minister wrote to J.F.Dulles that “after the loss of our colonies KLM is one of the tools we have to lift us above the possibilities of a small nation.”

I'm happy that I can finally put a bit of my professional expertise to use in this forum

CoMooter

brunos

Could you explain what is creaky with AA?

Zembla

And IMHO especially with THAT paper!

johan rebel

In every issue, Dutch aviation monthly Luchtvaartnieuws Magazine publishes an interview with a frequent business flyer. They are usually quite amusing. Many of these "frequent" flyers don't fly that frequently at all ("I take 6/8/12 flights a year, and I have a Silver/Gold card!"). When asked what their favorite airline is, the response is almost always gushing praise for KLM.

Luchtvaartnieuws is currently looking for frequent travelers to interview, if anybody is interested in lauding KLM some more.

Johan (With apologies for going somewhat OT)

Fabo.sk

I'd do it just to see if it goes to print, but I guess they'd want me to actually speak Dutch.
They would be in for a few surprises I guess.

CoMooter

brunos

Thanks.

CoMooter

NickB

Creaky or not, it still is a route with hubs by major OW airlines at both ends, which generates a level of traffic on a completely different scale to what AFKL could hope to achieve even in the most optimistic circumstances. At the height of the summer season, there are 19 direct *A flights to Europe from ORD and 13 OW ones. ST does not have a hope in hell of competing with that and ORD is bound to be a limited market for AFKL, where they can expect little beyond their core customer base, I would have thought.

Milkman

I will also gladly fly Y in AF over any other European based carrier, almost regardless of connection-hazzle. I find the Y product above par in so many ways. Especially as Elite, when you get dicounted or free seat plus and get some OK food in a lounge in CDG before your flight - or shower in the lounges in 2F after a redeye long haul.

And I actually enjoy not being online for a while, so wifi is rarely a necesity for me.