Arjan Kers, general manager of TUI Netherlands: “We strongly believe in this intensification of cooperation between KLM and TUI. By combining our strengths, we will generate further growth, with new destinations and more passenger capacity. This means we can offer our travellers a more varied range of holiday options.”

From Mombasa and Mauritius to all sorts of European cities

The intensified cooperation will see TUI restoring Kenya to its range of destinations. From November, TUI will offer capacity on three weekly KLM flights to Mombasa, with an intermediate stop in Nairobi. In addition, TUI will offer a substantial number of seats on all nonstop flights that KLM will begin operating to Mauritius in November. KLM will operate three weekly 787 Dreamliner flights to Mauritius, offering TUI a direct flight to this island paradise, where the organisation has its own chain of RIU Hotels.

Earlier this year, KLM began operating flights to Cartagena (Colombia) and, in the winter, KLM also began serving San José in Costa Rica, where TUI will begin operating tours next winter, under the Kras brand. KLM and TUI will also jointly serve various European cities, with KLM taking part in TUI’s “City of the Month” campaign, which highlights a specific city trip within Europe every month.

St Maarten

TUI will suspend flights to St Maarten this winter, but will continue to offer the Dutch market package trips to this island in cooperation with KLM.

In April 2016, the partnership between KLM and Xiamen Airlines was expanded with a 10-year contract that will see KLM Engineering & Maintenance handling the upkeep of the General Electric Next Generation engines of six Xiamen Airlines Boeing 787-8s.

In 2011, KLM began operating direct flights between Amsterdam and Xiamen. Since them, KLM has welcomed almost a half million passengers on this route. Xiamen Airlines also began operating on this route in March 2015, as part of a strategic partnership between KLM, China Southern Airlines and Xiamen Airlines.

The two airlines also agreed to further expand their code-sharing programme beyond their hubs. In addition to existing code-sharing between Taipei and Okinawa, Fukuoka and Singapore-Kaohsiung, KLM will also begin code-sharing on the following routes from 9 January: Taipei-Busan, Taipei-Kaohsiung, Taipei-Nagoya, Taipei-Shizuoka, Taipei-Miyazaki, and Taipei-Takamatsu.

From 9 January 2017, China Airlines will attach its code to KLM’s services between Amsterdam and Paris, Barcelona and Madrid, in addition to the existing codeshares on the Amsterdam-London and Amsterdam-Manchester routes.

KLM and China Eastern Airlines are also embarking on discussions aimed at further intensifying their cooperation.

KLM and Air France already have a close relationship with China Southern Airlines. KLM has been working with China Southern Airlines for the last decade. The intensive cooperation between KLM and China Southern Airlines covers six routes between the Netherlands and China, which connect to 35 codeshare destinations each.

The expanded cooperation will be effective from January 1, 2014, and the two carriers will add four new routes to the current arrangement, thus increasing the total KLM – Kenya Airways joint venture to a total of six routes.

The successful cooperation between KLM and Kenya Airways dates back to 1995. In 1997, they initiated a joint venture on the Amsterdam – Nairobi route, and in 2008, expanded the joint venture with the addition to flights between JKIA and Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France. Currently, Kenya Airways and KLM operate a daily service between Schiphol Amsterdam Airport and the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. The airlines jointly operate 19 weekly return flights between The Netherlands, France and Kenya.

From next year, the cooperation will be expanded through the addition of the London – Nairobi; Amsterdam –Entebbe/ Kigali route; Amsterdam – Lusaka and Harare routes; and the Amsterdam-Kilimanjaro/Dar-es-Salam route, the latter subject to regulatory approval. This will bring the total number of frequencies operated jointly by Kenya Airways and KLM to approximately 44 weekly flights with combined revenues exceeding US$500 million.

The enhanced cooperation is geared towards optimizing the longstanding relationship, with the ultimate objective of doubling the amount of frequencies between Europe and the East African continent.

KLM recently began operating daily service to Abu Dhabi. To further cement intensive cooperation, Etihad will begin operating daily service between Abu Dhabi and Schiphol from 21 May, in code-share with KLM.