Various experts
The series of workshops unite experts across disciplines, including aircraft designers, maintenance specialists, network planners, and revenue managers. Together, they address key challenges in maximizing electric aviation's potential. The airlines contribute vital operational and commercial insights that will shape the electric aircraft's design, development, and market implementation.

Transavia: realism and experience as drivers for innovation
As an airline, Transavia feels responsible for actively contributing to innovation in aviation sustainability. The collaboration with Elysian aligns with existing initiatives, such as fleet renewal and the use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF).

Transavia brings valuable expertise in maintenance, operations, and customer experience to the table. While some proposals—such as having aviation personnel perform battery swaps—proved impractical, new insights emerged. One notable discovery was the potential to open routes to destinations where passenger demand is too low to justify larger aircraft.

KLM: exploring the future with industry-wide impact
KLM acknowledges that emission-free flying cannot be achieved overnight. In collaboration with industry partners, the airline is researching flights powered by electricity, hydrogen, and hybrid fuels. Jolanda Stevens, Zero Emission Aviation Program Manager at KLM, has been a member of Elysian's advisory board since April 2024.

A crucial element of this collaboration is pilot involvement, as they offer essential feedback on aircraft performance and energy consumption patterns.

Next steps
In the coming months, the partners will continue working on concrete use cases, route analyses, and passenger propositions. The joint ambition is not only to build a more sustainable aircraft but to design a complete ecosystem around it.

This strategic collaboration marks an important step toward sustainability in the aviation industry, where innovation and cooperation go hand in hand.

The new robot system will reduce handling costs and make it easier to effect meal tray adjustments. This will serve to reduce production costs while increasing flexibility and customer-centricity, making it easy to serve a wider array of products on different types of trays. It will also be possible to cater efficiently to diverse special requests. The rate of production will also double in comparison to the previous system, namely 30,000 pieces.

Last month a team of researchers, engineers and a drone pilot from TU Delft travelled to an airbase in Germany for the first test flight. "We were very curious about the flight characteristics of the Flying-V. The design fits within our Fly Responsibly initiative, which stands for everything we are doing and will do to improve our sustainability. We want a sustainable future for aviation and innovation is part of that. KLM has been among the top three most sustainable airlines worldwide in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for many years. We want to continue to do so in the future. We are therefore very proud that we have been able to achieve this together in such a short period of time," says Pieter Elbers, President and CEO of KLM.

Click here for the footage of the flight.

The Flying-V is a design for a very energy-efficient long-haul aircraft. The design of the aircraft integrates the passenger cabin, cargo hold and fuel tanks in the wings, creating a spectacular V-shape. Computer calculations have predicted that the improved aerodynamic shape and reduced weight of the aircraft will reduce fuel consumption by 20% compared to today's most advanced aircraft.

Collaboration and Innovation

KLM presented the scale model for the first time during KLM's 100th anniversary in October 2019. Several partners are now involved in the project, including manufacturer Airbus. Elbers: "You can't make the aviation sector more sustainable on your own, but you have to do it together," says Elbers. Collaborating with partners and sharing knowledge takes us all further. That's why we will further develop the Flying-V concept with all partners. The next step will be to fly the Flying V on sustainable fuel".

For more information about the test flight:

Today, Dr. Roelof Vos and Prof. Henri Werij of TU Delft showed how the test flight went via a webcast. Pieter Elbers, CEO KLM and Daniel Reckzeh, Senior Manager R&T in Airbus commented. The recording of the webcast can be viewed here.

Call your Mom, visit your Mom!
Not only will these video conversations bring families together, they will also deliver the best imaginable Mother’s Day present: a ticket to visit your Mom. KLM will be giving away three tickets to the children who called their mothers the longest. The longer you call your mother, the greater your chances become of winning a ticket that will bring you back together. The three winners will be announced on 12 May 2018, the day before Mother’s Day.

The “Call your Mom” platform
From KLM’s platform, people can make video calls to their mothers. It will be possible to do so from a desktop or mobile device. Create an account and then invite your mother to make a video call. The platform then measures the length of your call with your mother. A system will be used to ensure that calls are actually made. This system will not save any personal data.

Air France and KLM are the world’s first airlines to make use of this kind of sorting system. In Paris, the system has already been a great success since its launch in April 2015. KLM opted for a same kind of system, but had to make various innovative adjustments owing to a lack of space.

To make space for a new pier at Schiphol, one of KLM Cargo’s three warehouses had to be partly demolished. The main challenge in building the sorting system lay in accommodating existing cargo processes in 50% of the floor space. This was achieved, in part, by scaling up vertically. The storage space for containers has doubled, ensuring that there is space for growth.

Together, KLM and Air France are the world’s fifth-largest air cargo carrier. Every year, KLM and its partners carry 928 kilotons of cargo. Schiphol is Europe’s third-largest air cargo hub, after Frankfurt and Paris.

Foto's: Paul Ridderhof

Testing will take place through 4 December in the Schengen section of the airport.

Partners
For this project, KLM teamed up with SME Bluebotics, various universities (including Freiburg, Munich, Twente and Orebo), the Hogeschool Aachen, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

Passengers will not yet be involved in this test phase. The final demonstration is on March 2016.