Read the Air France-KLM press release here.

AFKLMP has partnered with this year’s team, made up of students from Delft University of Technology, to transport the Nuna 11s from the Netherlands to South Africa and back again. AFKLMP converted the fuel needed to fly the Nuna 11s from Amsterdam to Johannesburg into sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), reducing the carbon footprint of the journey. The Dutch Brunel Solar Team and AFKLMP are both keen to pursue sustainability and innovation. Using SAF reduces carbon emissions by at least 75% compared to fossil kerosene.

This year’s Sasol Solar Challenge will start in Johannesburg on Friday 9 September and end in Cape Town on Friday 16 September.
The Dutch Solar Team departed for South Africa ahead of the Nuna 11s, on Thursday 4 August. 

Around 500 packages of equipment can be carried in the cabin on each flight. If the trial proves successful, Beijing and Hong Kong will join Shanghai on the list of destinations for this new service. KLM will be deploying three Boeing 777s to operate Cargo-in-Cabin flights. The B747-400 combi flights currently re-entering service on these routes will soon be reconfigured to be similarly deployed. The packages will be bound to the passenger seats and stowed in the baggage bins.

Cargo-in-Cabin in practice

KLM’s new, albeit temporary cargo carrying concept was developed by a multidisciplinary team within a three-week timeframe. Executive Vice President Air France-KLM Cargo Adriaan den Heijer: “Developing and implementing this concept is a particularly complex necessity. Safety plays a pivotal role. Each and every package must be bound securely to the seat to ensure it remains in place throughout the flight. But practical matters have to be taken into account too, such as swiftly and safely loading the cabin cargo without damaging the interior. This process is especially labour intensive; current expectations are that this will take at least four hours.” To ensure that everything goes off smoothly, all such flights will be accompanied by a Cargo-in-Cabin Coordinator from KLM Cargo to maintain onsite loading supervision and monitor compliance with the new procedures.

Added space

“Cargo-in-Cabin significantly increases capacity. What we can now accommodate in the cabin equates to around six large pallets in the belly or 40% of the total cargo capacity,” explains Den Heijer, adding: “We can use the added space to our advantage, carrying more urgent medical supplies. Cargo-in-Cabin caters perfectly to the growing demand for such equipment.”

The cargo aircraft in use by Martinair Cargo and investigated by the Argentinian authorities has not yet been released.

Ruud Leukel, supervisor of the Animal Hotel, accepted the prize on behalf of all Animal Hotel staff.

Reducing the environmental footprint

For years now, KLM Cargo has been working to shrink its environmental footprint, for instance, by reducing waste. The combination of solutions that the Sustainable Business Challenge generates aims to ensure that KLM Cargo’s Amsterdam hub will achieve its waste reduction target of 50% less residual waste by 2030 compared to 2011.

Fly Responsibly

KLM Cargo’s participation in the 2019 Sustainable Business Challenge fits in perfectly with KLM’s Fly Responsibly initiative. Fly Responsibly shows KLM’s commitment to creating a more sustainable future for the airline industry. It includes everything KLM is doing now and in the future to improve the sustainability of its operations. However, only when the entire sector works together can we make real progress. As part of the Fly Responsibly campaign, KLM invites its customers to use its carbon compensation programme and asks companies to compensate for their business travel by taking part in the KLM Corporate BioFuel Programme.

KLM Cargo is one of five companies providing business cases for the challenge. The others are ProRail, Waternet, ForFarmers, and ENGIE. Visit the website (in Dutch) to register until 25 October 2019.

(*) The joint Air France KLM traffic results are available in the download box of this message.

KLM Cargo showed positive results in July. Traffic increased by 2.7% against a drop in capacity of 1.4%. The result was an increase in cargo load factor of 2.5%^pts to 65%. Transavia welcomed fewer passengers in July than in the same month the previous year. With decreased traffic and capacity, load factor decreased slightly as a result of the earlier suspension of activities in Munich.

(*) The joint Air France KLM traffic results are available in the download box of this message.

Looking at the first six months of 2018, we see that our revenue passenger kilometres (RPKs) are up 5.4%, with capacity up 4.2% compared to the first half of last year. This resulted in a 1% increase in load factor during the first half of the year, in which KLM welcomed 16.6 million passengers, up from 15.6 million in the first half of 2017.

KLM Cargo kept its traffic virtually stable during the first half of the year, while reducing capacity by 1.9%, which led to a 1.2% increase in load factor to 66.3%.

Transavia saw its load factor rise by 2.9% in the first half of 2018, with traffic up 3.3% and capacity down slightly.

The ambition for the next four years is to jointly investigate and exploit the available opportunities in the air cargo market. To achieve this the airlines want to:

• Expand their existing cooperation and build on mutual experience to connect the cargo business in China, Europe and beyond markets. This will also enable them to continue to use their membership of the SkyTeam Cargo Alliance to maximum advantage.

• Connect CZ’s strong position in China and Asia Pacific region with AFKLMP’s strong position in Europe, Africa and the Trans-Atlantic area, possibly by sharing capacity and space agreements.

• Combine CZ and AFKLMP Cargo networks (belly and main deck product) to offer high frequency services via their hubs at Guangzhou, Shanghai, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Schiphol.

• Provide easy access to each other’s capacity within this combined network cooperation and explore each other’s ground service facilities at home base hubs, which might support quick interline transfers (one roof concept).

• Increase Mail and Express business opportunities between China, Europe and the USA.

Ultimately this could lead to an integrated commercial and operational cargo cooperation model (Joint Venture) between Europe and China.

KLM Cargo is specialised in the secure transportation of art and other valuable and special cargo. In the past, KLM Cargo transported works such as Johannes Vermeer’s “Milkmaid” and Damien Hirst’s “Shark”, which weighs 5,000 kilos. In 2016, KLM Cargo brought the skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex from the United States to the Netherlands, for an exhibition at Naturalis in Leiden. And in April 2017, they transported two pandas from China to the Netherlands, where they found a new home at Ouwehands Dierenpark.

The exhibition “Dutch Masters from the Hermitage. Treasures of the Tsars” will be on at the Hermitage Amsterdam from 7 October through 27 May 2018. It will include a total of 63 works by 50 Dutch Masters of the Golden Age, including six paintings by Rembrandt. The majority of these paintings are permanently on show and have not been exhibited in the Netherlands since they were purchased by the tsars.

Within the scope of the pilot project, KLM Cargo is participating in a consortium representing all the parties involved in the supply chain. KLM Cargo’s partners include Schiphol Cargo, Jan de Rijk Logistics, Cargonaut, Swissport, Kuehne+Nagel and the Customs Services and Tax Authorities.

This morning, the first newly scheduled cargo trucks arrived carrying goods from Frankfurt. A distinction is now being drawn between shipments with shorter connecting times and those with less time pressure.

Introducing the new schedule also constitutes the first step towards setting up a Cloud platform facilitating data exchange amongst the cooperating parties. This means that once data has been delivered “real time” by other parties in the supply chain, it can be reused, supplemented or modified where necessary. From the start, the information is also automatically verified against the applicable customs regulations and safety standards. Not only will this support the exchange of administrative data, it will also facilitate the exchange of status information relating to the shipments.

The project is supported by the national Neutral Logistic Information Platform (NLIP) steering committee and therefore forms part of government’s policy on leading sectors. In the leading sector of logistics, government aims to raise efficiency and enhance the quality of logistics to ensure the Netherlands maintains its international standing as a leader in this sector in 2020 and beyond.

About Trix
Trix roamed North America around 66 million years ago. The Tyrannosaurus Rex is one of the best-known dinosaur species in the world, because it appeals to the imagination, having been one of the biggest predators on the face of the planet. Trix’s bones were carefully excavated in 2013, under auspices of the Dutch palaeontologist Dr Anne Schulp. Trix will be proudly displayed at the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in Leiden from Saturday, 10 September, when the exhibition “T.rex in Town” opens to the public.

About Air France KLM Cargo
KLM Cargo is the airfreight division of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, transporting regular cargo as well as special and unusual shipments, ranging from exclusive paintings and sports cars to race horses and rhinos, and now even a T.rex. In 2015, Air France KLM Cargo transported 1,2 million tonnes of freight.

As a consequence of Schiphol building the new pier, one of KLM Cargo’s three cargo warehouses will be partially demolished. This means that KLM Cargo will have to be smart about how it uses the limited amount of space available. Lödige will provide the answer by integrating KLM Cargo’s existing processes for handing mail and express shipments into an automated solution in an innovative manner. The challenge here will be to house this in an area half the size of the existing space. In order to achieve this, Lödige Industries and Vanderlande Industries formed an exclusive cooperative relationship so that the KLM Cargo team could join forces with them in an open and constructive manner.

In order to create space for the construction of a sorting system in cargo building 1, express handling operations will as of 12 June be housed elsewhere for the time being. Temporary premises have been constructed for this purpose in the front area of KLM Cargo in order to safeguard customer service.

Arthur van Brink (Lödige Industries) and Marcel de Nooijer (KLM Cargo) signing on the dotted line

The Dutch company Hizkia van Kralingen from The Haque shipped the artworks from the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag to Schiphol. Hizkia specialises in packing and transporting art and operates worldwide in this field. The Mondrian artworks are being safely carried with the utmost of care in specially customised ‘Turtle’ crates (developed by Van Kralingen). Once delivered to KLM, the artworks were loaded on board the aircraft by a specialised team.

Check out the KLM Blog for a description of how these Mondrian artworks are being transported.

In the first stage of the agreement a smooth use of each parties’ ground handling facilities at their hubs will enable a faster and seamless transfer process.

The agreement also covers mutual access to the airlines’ respective networks through interlining SPA (Special Prorate Agreements). The partners will also intensify their cooperation on the Express and Mail premium products in response to the substantial increase in e-commerce trade between Asia and Europe, and beyond.

Mr Bram Gräber, EVP AIR FRANCE KLM MARTINAIR Cargo and Mr Zhao Fengsheng, SVP China Southern Cargo, signed up to this new partnership at a ceremony in Guangzhou on 15 September, 2015.

Air France-KLM-Martinair Cargo has decided on a business model which requires less freighter capacity, rather than a model with no freighters at all. Consequently, as an operating carrier within the KLM Group, Martinair Cargo will scale back its fleet and use just one type of aircraft (Boeing 747). This decision affects around 170 ground staff FTEs in the Netherlands, 50 FTEs abroad and 110 cockpit FTEs.

The company will do its utmost to reassign ground staff within the KLM Group using existing instruments, the scope of which may be extended to include voluntary redundancy. This will take place in close consultation with the unions and will only apply to employees working in areas where a staff surplus arises.

A number of voluntary measures have recently been rolled out for pilots at Martinair Cargo. Reassignment options within the group have been explored over the last few months and a number of pilots have taken the step to join Transavia. Recent changes in the financial conditions mean KLM is unable to offer pilots the same salaries they were receiving at Martinair. With KLM’s help, Martinair will continue to make every effort to find solutions for the pilots outside the KLM group. Negotiations between Martinair Cargo and the unions are ongoing and are based on the existing collective labour agreement (CLA). However, the possibility of compulsory redundancies cannot be excluded. Air France-KLM-Martinair Cargo deeply regrets the social consequences of these changes, but the reduction is unavoidable if the cargo business is to be restored to good health.

From 2016, Air France-KLM-Martinair Cargo will continue to operate with a mainframe fleet of six Full Freighters (two Boeing 777Fs at Paris Charles De Gaulle and four Boeing 747-400s at Amsterdam Schiphol), supplemented by 15 Boeing 747 Combi’s. Air France-KLM-Martinair Cargo is convinced that the remaining flexible freighters will continue to provide its clients with a full range of solutions to meet their needs. The freighter network at Schiphol will concentrate on Africa and North, Central and South America and will, of course, continue to serve important markets, such as the flower sector. The company will also continue to invest in Cargo (Express, Pharma, e-commerce).

Cargo remains a core business for the Air France-KLM Group. It generates income of EUR 2.5 billion per year and contributes around EUR 1 billion a year to the passenger network. It goes without saying that pulling out of the cargo business is out of the question.

A Martinair B747-400 freighter will be deployed on this unique route and has been decorated in a specially designed livery, that not only reflects the Safari Connection but also the partnership between KLM and Kenya Airways. The roundtrip service will be operated twice weekly. The freighter has a maximum capacity of 110 tonnes.

“Thanks to the flexibility that the Martinair freighters offer the KLM Group, we can respond swiftly to market opportunities. This is very important in the current circumstances. This shows that the KLM Group intends to keep investing and innovating, thereby retaining an important role in the airfreight market. Naturally, we are also assessing opportunities to expand to other regions, such as Latin-America,” says Camiel Eurlings, managing director of KLM.

KLM AirCares supported Cycling out of Poverty in 2009, on the occasion of KLM’s 90th anniversary. KLM staff and passengers donated money and Flying Blue Miles to the value of €80,000-plus. The project ‘Cycling Blue for Kenya’ set out to establish a bicycle repair shop and a centre that would train 75 Kenyans as bike mechanics. In addition, micro-credit was extended to families so that they could set up their own bike taxi business or buy a bike for their children, who had to travel more than 10 km to school. In this way, the project also contributes to the millennium objective to achieve universal basic education.

National Park De Hoge Veluwe is renowned for its white bikes, which are made available to the park’s visitors free of charge. The foundation annually disposes of one fifth of these white bicycles, passing them on to worthy causes. The foundation is pleased that its white bicycles are put to good use in Kenya. Before the bikes are sent off, they are given a full check-up by youths working for the Hoenderloo Groep, which offers 24-hour care to young people afflicted with complex behavioural syndromes. National Park De Hoge Veluwe strives to achieve maximum sustainability and social responsibility in its operations. The reutilisation of the bicycles is perfectly reflects this objective.

Cooperation between KLM and the De Hoge Veluwe National Park goes back many years. The current White Bicycle project is one of many initiatives that reflect KLM’s social side and strengthen the existing bond with the park

The civil actions, which have been brought as class actions and consolidated in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, were initially filed in 2006 after the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission initiated investigations of the air cargo industry.  

In 2008, the three carriers entered into plea agreements in the United States to resolve that investigation. The investigation by the EU Commission remains pending.

From St Petersburg, the painting was supervised by various Dutch and Russian guests including Ernst Veen, curator of the Hermitage Amsterdam. The group also included international journalists and camera crews.
 
Representatives from leading travel agencies in St Petersburg and the Russian press are visiting the Netherlands within the scope of the Holland Alliance, a cooperative venture between the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions (NBTC), Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and KLM. The alliance aims to promote the Netherlands nationally and internationally.