Today as I walked through the McNamara Terminal in Detroit I came across AF's "First Flight" celebration at gate A54 inaugurating their long-awaited (and apparently delayed) DTW-CDG route. They had champagne, Perrier, and other treats.

This makes me wonder why KLM never flies the route anymore. I realize that they're codeshared with NWA, but I haven't seen the KLM colors here in years. What's the reason?

As for AF, it's nice to see more colors in my hometown. If only they had a few free tix on the tables with the other freebies... After all, my bags were already packed...

Why would KLM fly DTW-CDG?

KL never flew DTW-CDG. NW/KL have transatlantic immunity and decided that it was best for NW to operate each DTW-AMS flight (for now, at least.)

AF would've probably begun DTW-CDG service regardless of NW's entry into SkyTeam. DTW had been a "finalist" for AF transatlantic service many times over the past decade.

KLM/NW by virtue of their longstanding agreement split the income from all Transatlantic flights operated by both carriers. KLM serves some markets, NWA serves others. Sometimes (but not so much anymore) they both have flights to the same airport.

For years NWA metal served IAD-AMS, however, over the last few years KLM has served it. (There is only one flight a day).

Every so often they will switch things around (like when new planes are added to the fleet). But I don't think you will see KLM at DTW in the near future since most of the A330's are allocated to DTW.

As pointed out by wldtrvlr already, KLM and NWA share their income and costs 50/50 on the routes across the pond to the US ( Canada is excluded as well as the Caribbean ) so it is completely irrelevant which route is served on blue or silver metal.

IIRC KLM operated to DTW for the last time in the winter season after the new World Gateway opened, I can remember sitting in F on a 752 bound for Phoenix after arriving on a KL 74M.

NW had some operational problems early on, so delays were common.It was the 2 p.m ish departure from Schiphol that was served by KLM, now it is NW 53 / KL 6053 again.

For example KLM used to operate the Memphis route for a very long time, until NW took it over about a year ago.It was a MD 11 for most of the time and always a late departure out of Schiphol, conveniently connecting to the last bank of flights at MEM.After Sep. 11 NW ceased operations out of MEM after 6 p.m. ( kind of scary when the WC closed at 5.30 p.m ) and KLM operated the flight earlier to offer connections, it became a 767 for some time.Then NW took it over and operates it with a DC 10.

Other airports that saw NW and KL shuffle aircrafts were MIA, IAD, MSP, but also EWR and JFK.NW used to opearte a daily 744 to Schiphol that left Kennedy at 6 p.m., now we have two KL flights to JFK and one to EWR.Only airports which I can remember not to have any aircraft shuffles are the ones which are served mostly with a KL 74M ( NW obviously do not have Combi aircraft ) so we are talking about IAH, LAX or ORD.

SFO-AMS was also always served on KL 747/M11 or 777 metal. ATL-AMS was a 743 in the past and from then on always a KL 767.

IMO BOS-AMS was always a NW DC 10 / A 330

PHL-AMS was also always a NW DC 10, IIRC

[QUOTE=Threy]As pointed out by wldtrvlr already, KLM and NWA share their income and costs 50/50 on the routes across the pond to the US ( Canada is excluded as well as the Caribbean ) so it is completely irrelevant which route is served on blue or silver metal.

The agreement to share income and costs 50/50 covers all transatlantic flights to the US, Canada and to Mexico City. The caribbean is excluded. The Canadian and Mexican flights must be flown by KL as NW does not have the authority to fly those routes, just as the US-FCO, LGW, CDG and FRA had to be flown by NW (maybe KL has more authority now that they are part of AF, or less restricive EU rules?). The other rule is that overall in the JV, roughly half the flying has to be done by each airline, thanks to pilot agreements. So the flight flown and by whom are tweaked under these various restrictions. For example as mentioned by others, the DC-10 that flew AMS-IAD was switched to AMS-MEM, and the KL plane went from MEM to IAD

Who got the NW plane when EWR-AMS went from NW to KLM a few years back?

My guess is that went to replace the one KL frequency on AMS-DTW, or maybe the KL on AMS-MSP, back when there was one KL and one NW on that route.

[QUOTE=exymer]There is an Open Sky agreement between the US and several European countries and full freedom of establishment within the EU, so any airline could fly from FRA or FCO to DTW, no need at all for NW to operate those flights...

[QUOTE=Threy]Ah, I thought that might be the case. Thanks for the info. Anyway, it makes more sense for NW to handle the DTW-European spoke flights.