The small-scale pilot will be available in Japan, South Korea and South Africa, with agents communicating in Japanese, Korean and English. Customers can use Messenger customer chat via a ‘chat now’ button that will appear on relevant KLM.com pages when a service agent is available. The pilot will serve to guide further roll-out of the service in the future. In six Western European countries, KLM already has a direct chat service via KLM.com, available via the website itself. The new chat service via Messenger is a next step in KLM’s social media integration.

KLM social media pioneer

KLM is the world’s first airline offering customers the option of receiving travel documentation and flight status updates via WhatsApp, Messenger, Twitter and/or WeChat. Since 2009, KLM has gained a reputation as a pioneer in the field of social media services and campaigns. KLM has more than 25 million fans and followers on various social media platforms. KLM is mentioned more than 130,000 times a week on these platforms, of which 25,000 are questions, which receive personal replies from more than 250 service agents – the world’s largest social media team. KLM offers customers 24/7 support via WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger, Twitter, LinkedIn, WeChat and KakaoTalk (South Korea) in nine different languages and in Italian during office hours.

The Japanese market has always been important for AIRFRANCE-KLM. This is expressed in KLM’s and Air France’s very long and continuous presence in Japan since 1951 and 1952 respectively.

After suspension of the route, KLM and Air France will remain present in the Kyushu region and will remain as dedicated to the Japanese market as they have been before. Connections from Fukuoka to Europe will be offered in cooperation with KLM’s partners via its 26 weekly services to Osaka and Tokyo in Japan, Seoul in South Korea and Taipei in Taiwan. On top of that, Kyushu will continue to be served by Air France’s network of 23 weekly services to Japan.

Passengers with a booking on Amsterdam-Fukuoka vv later than January 4, 2016, will be rebooked to the best available alternative. The aircraft that flew previously to Fukuoka will be deployed elsewhere in the KLM network. In this manner, KLM continues to optimise its network.

As an example of these strong ties KLM chose the SieboldHuis in Leiden as its yearly Delftware miniature house to commemorate KLM’s 93rd birthday. The SieboldHuis has a special collection of Japanese objects and is also a more general museum for Japanese culture.

Fukuoka is the economic centre of the Kyushu region, located in the south-west of Japan. The region has a total population of around 15 million inhabitants. It is the fourth largest Japanese passenger market to Europe. Every year, 16 million passengers use Fukuoka Airport for domestic and international flights.

Fukuoka is also a tourist destination with interesting cultural and historical highlights. The new service between Fukuoka and Amsterdam will also enable the people from Kyushu region to conveniently visit Amsterdam, the Netherlands and Europe with this first direct flight to Europe.

The new service will be operated three times a week. Flight KL869 will depart from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, arriving in Fukuoka the following day. The return flight, KL870, will depart from Fukuoka Airport on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, arriving in Amsterdam on the same day.

Flights will be operated with a Boeing 777-200ER, which can seat up to 318 passengers: 35 in World Business Class and 283 in Economy Class.

Customers can use these social media channels to ask KLM all travel related questions such as selecting a seat, rebooking a ticket, canceling a reservation or making extra baggage reservations. KLM does its utmost to answer all customer questions within one hour and provide solutions within twenty-four hours.

The Japanese market is of great importance for KLM. The inclusion of the Japanese language fits KLM’s strategy to expand its social media service.

For more information, please contact:
KLM Media Relations: mediarelations@klm.com 
+31(0)20-649 4545

Asia remains a strategic growth market for KLM. In recent years, KLM has offered its customers a steadily increasing range of flights to Asian destinations. New destinations such as Hangzhou (China) and Denpasar (Indonesia) were added to KLM’s intercontinental network out of Schiphol. KLM also increased flight frequency to Osaka, Shanghai, Seoul and Chengdu.