A bad week for KLM

World Affairs Talk
Tuesday, 05 June 2007
Dutch Royal Dutch Airlines KLM passed a bad week. Firstly, a trade union representing flight attendants at KLM threatened strikes over ill labour conditions resulting in a situation where, the Dutch arm of Air France KLM and unions were at odds over easing the workload of flight attendants. The labour agreement for cabin personnel covers some 8,500 KLM employees. In the second incident, passengers and crew members on board a KLM plane were injured when it hit turbulence a few hours after taking off from Amsterdam on 31 May 2007. The three-minute incident injured seven passengers and toppled a meal cart that resulted in some burn injuries. Three Dutch crew members received minor injuries. A passenger who is also a physician reportedly attended to the injured. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is an airline subsidiary of Air France-KLM based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It operates domestic and worldwide scheduled passenger and cargo services to over 90 destinations. Its main base is Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.Prior to its merger with Air France, KLM was the national airline of the Netherlands. KLM is the oldest airline in the world still operating under its original name. It has 30,118 employees (April 2007). On 30 September 2003, Air France and KLM announced that they would in future be known as Air France-KLM. This entity was first offered on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange on 5 May 2004. The takeover of KLM by Air France marked the end of the oldest independent airline in the world. Over the past few years, labour agreements to improve efficiency and changes to KLM's European flight schedule have increased the workload of cabin staff and stretched their working hours. The union's members had the last word and would decide the course of action by June 21. Some 13 passengers and three crew members were hurt when the KLM Flight 867, with a total of 275 people on board, was hit by turbulence on the way to Kansai airport in western Japan from Amsterdam. The pilot decided to continue the flight to Japan because all injuries were minor. Nine people with neck injuries and burns were taken to nearby hospitals. During the turbulence, meals scattered, hot drinks spilled and glasses were shattered, passengers were quoted as saying. The aircraft suffered no damage, according to the Japanese Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry. This bad week was followed by a very good week actually as it posted a 32.5 percent rise in 2006-07 operating profit on 24th May, due to a massive passenger traffic growth. KLM, the Europe's biggest airline in terms of passengers, and the world's largest by revenue reported that its widely watched operating income reached 1.240 billion euros in the year and revenues rose 7.6 percent to 23.073 billion euros. Share & Bookmark
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 06 June 2007 )

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