Courtesy: KLM.
Europe, expanding its portfolio with the opening of seven new services
In summer 2016, KLM will expand its medium-haul network with scheduled service to seven new destinations: Southampton, Inverness, Dresden, Genoa, Valencia, Alicante and Ibiza. These services will be operated with one daily frequency except for Southampton which will operated with two daily frequencies. Ibiza will be operated only during the peak season, in addition to the existing Transavia Summer operations from Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Rotterdam. After a successful startup in Summer 15, KLM is also adding a second daily operation to Krakow, offering 14 weekly flights. In order to further improve the hub function of Amsterdam, KLM is increasing frequencies to Prague, Berlin, Birmingham, Leeds-Bradford, Aalborg, Budapest and Luxembourg. KLM is suspending its operations to Cologne in Germany.
North America, strengthening its position on the key markets
KLM will offer an additional flight operated 3 times weekly to Salt Lake City, which is one of Delta Air Lines’ hubs, complementary to the Delta daily service. In Summer 16, in conjunction with Delta operations, Salt Lake City from Amsterdam is served up to 10 times a week. To the West Coast, KLM is adding a second flight twice weekly to San Francisco operated with the newest aircraft Boeing 787 Dreamliner. San Francisco is now served with up to 9 weekly frequencies from Amsterdam. Furthermore, KLM is increasing frequencies to Los Angeles by proposing up to 14 flights a week. In the meantime, KLM is adjusting its capacity to the demand market with the suspension of the Amsterdam Dallas flight and the second Amsterdam-Houston flight. KLM is also strengthening its partnerships in this region. KLM, jointly with Delta Airlines, is adding Jet Airways as a new code sharing partner to its North America destinations. KLM is enhancing its cooperation with WestJet by the addition of new code shares destinations via its subsidiary WestJet Encore.
Central and South America, adapting to the market dynamics
In the Caribbean, KLM will increase from 4 to 5 weekly frequencies to Havana, with a bigger aircraft Airbus A330-300, in order to accommodate the increasing number of tourists to Cuba. KLM is also increasing its extra flights to Curacao after the holiday season. KLM will keep on flying to Rio de Janeiro with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. In addition, KLM will continue to make use of its key partnerships in the region, including Copa Airlines from Panama and GOL in Brazil.
Africa, optimizing the network
KLM is offering an additional 3rd frequency to Luanda (Angola), jointly increasing the AFKL offer to 6 weekly flights from Paris and Amsterdam hubs. In South Africa, KLM will increase from 5 to 7 weekly frequencies to Cape Town. Given the market dynamics in East Africa, KLM is redesigning its network: KLM will increase the number of circle flights to Kilimanjaro/Dar-El-Salaam and Kigali/Entebbe from 4 weekly frequencies to a daily frequency, enabling KLM to maintain a daily flight to each destination while reducing exposure in the region with less direct flights. KLM will continue to build on the strength of the Kenya Airways network in East Africa and further develop its connecting opportunities beyond Nairobi.
Asia and Middle-East, seizing opportunities and reinforcing partnerships
KLM will expand its services to Kazakhstan by combining the current Almaty flights with service to the capital Astana, served 4 times weekly with a circle flight. In the Middle East the flights between daily Abu Dhabi-Bahrain and 5 weekly Doha-Muscat will be changed into daily Abu Dhabi-Muscat and 5 weekly Doha-Bahrain. In addition, KLM continues to reinforce cooperation with Etihad to offer customers a wider choice of connecting flights.
Given the new market dynamics, KLM is proposing a second flight to Kuala Lumpur three times weekly starting from peak summer. In Japan, where the market has still not fully recovered from the economic slowdown and the Paris attacks, KLM will therefore reduce its frequencies to Tokyo Narita from 11 to 8 frequencies in the peak summer. Moreover, KLM has suspended its service to Fukuoka since January 16. KLM will increase its frequencies to Shanghai by offering up to 13 weekly flights, following the increasing market demand. Chengdu, Hangzhou and Xiamen will benefit from an improved product with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
Focus on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner
As of Summer 16, the new generation Boeing 787 Dreamliner will, partially or totally, fly to the following destinations: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Cairo, Cape Town, San Francisco, Toronto, Rio de Janeiro, Osaka, Delhi, Hangzhou, Xiamen, Chengdu, and Shanghai.
Source: KLM.