Network, technology and innovation have always played an important role in moving KLM forward, by making travel easy and creating memorable experiences for its customers. KLM was the first western airline in China to offer servicing on WeChat and Weibo in 2014, and opened its first flagship store on Alitrip (Fliggy) in 2016. The Netherlands and China are well connected by KLM and partner airlines, serving 8 destinations non-stop from Amsterdam to/from Greater China, with 67 weekly flights, connecting to over 50 KLM codeshare destinations in China, flying over 1.6 million passengers per year.

MoU KLM and Xiamen Airlines

The MoU between Xiamen Airlines and KLM was signed by Che Shanglun, Chairman of Xiamen Airlines and Pieter Elbers, President and CEO of KLM. Under the framework of this agreement, KLM Engineering & Maintenance will provide maintenance of 138 Leap engines for the new Boeing 737 Max operated by Xiamen Airlines.

Pieter Elbers commented: “This agreement intensifies our relationship and confirms once more KLM's expertise and competence in the area of high-grade engine maintenance, thereby securing job related opportunities in Amsterdam.”

Che Shanglun, Chairman of Xiamen Airlines commented: “Following earlier successful maintenance contracts between Xiamen Airlines and KLM, the signing of this MoU will lead to even closer ties and wider cooperation between our two airlines in the future.”

MoU KLM and Ctrip

The MoU between Ctrip and KLM was signed by Jane Sun Jie, CEO of Ctrip.com and Pieter Elbers, President and CEO of KLM. This MoU is a first step towards a strategic partnership agreement in which Ctrip and KLM will work on a set of projects to enhance the offer to Chinese consumers ranging from distribution and marketing to loyalty programs. For Ctrip as largest online travel agency, this is the sole strategic partnership with any European airline.

Pieter Elbers commented: “With so many complementary areas across our businesses and supply chains, the partnership with Ctrip has the potential to help us realize significant innovations in areas including customer service, data operations, flight route development and product marketing. This will help to solidify and grow The Netherlands’ position as the ’Gateway to Europe’ for Chinese travelers and enterprises."

Ctrip’s CEO Sun Jie commented: “With the great opportunities presented by the EU-China Tourism Year in general and the agreement with KLM in particular, Ctrip will help more Chinese tourists travel to Europe, broadening horizons and benefiting business partners in the region.”

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.

Paying for a KLM ticket has become simple: once a passenger booked a ticket on KLM.com via desktop, and chooses WeChat as the preferred payment option, a QR code appears. Users scan this code which refers them to WeChat Pay, the money is amortized and a successful payment is done. If a customer booked a ticket on mobile or via the WeChat app, and chooses WeChat as the preferred payment option, the customer is automatically referred to WeChat Pay and able to pay for the ticket easily. Users need to bind their bankcard only once to use WeChat Pay.

KLM on WeChat
KLM opened a WeChat account in 2014 offering her Chinese passengers service, brand content and commercial offers via the platform. Since May 2017, KLM customers have the choice to receive their booking confirmation, check-in notification, boarding pass and flight status updates via WeChat. So far nearly 25% of all Chinese KLM customers booking online, receive their flight info via WeChat. KLM gets over 8000 servicing questions a week, mainly in Simplified Chinese.

About KLM and Social Media
Since 2009 KLM gained a reputation as an initiator and pioneer in the area of social media services and campaigns in the social landscape. In April 2017, KLM had over 25 million fans and followers on various social media platforms. Through these channels, KLM receives over 100,000 mentions every week, 15,000 of which are questions or remarks. These are personally replied to by 250 service agents, forming the world’s largest dedicated social media team. On Facebook, Messenger, Twitter, LinkedIn, WeChat and KakaoTalk (Korean) KLM offers her customers a 24/7 one-stop-shop in 9 different languages: Dutch, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. During office hours KLM also services in Italian. KLM was the first airline worldwide to offer customers the option to receive flight documents and status updates via Messenger. KLM also offers this service on Twitter and WeChat.

KLM on Twitter and WeChat

KLM has over 2.2 million fans on Twitter and receives more than 25,000 mentions on a weekly basis. In September 2014, KLM started her WeChat account, offering passengers 24/7 service, brand content and commercial offers. WeChat is the no. 1 social media platform in Mainland China with 938 million monthly active users. KLM has over 120,000 fans and receives over 6000 questions a week, which shows that Chinese customers appreciate this platform to communicate with KLM.

KLM on Messenger

Last year, KLM introduced the KLM flight info service via Messenger, which proved to be a success. More than 1.4 million customers received their KLM flight documents and updates via Messenger, 10% of all online KLM bookings are confirmed via this channel and 15% of all online KLM boarding passes are sent via Messenger.

About KLM and Social Media

Since 2009 KLM gained a reputation as an initiator and pioneer in the area of social media services and campaigns in the social landscape. In April 2017, KLM had over 25 million fans and followers on various social media platforms. Through these channels, KLM receives over 100,000 mentions every week, 15,000 of which are questions or remarks. These are personally replied to by our 250 service agents, forming the world’s largest dedicated social media team. On Facebook, Messenger, Twitter, LinkedIn, WeChat and KakaoTalk KLM offers her customers a 24/7 one-stop-shop in 9 different languages: Dutch, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. During office hours KLM also services in Italian.

KLM has opted for Sina Weibo and WeChat because these are very popular social media channels in China.

With this new addition, KLM now offers its social media service in eleven languages: Dutch, English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, Norwegian, Russian, Japanese and Chinese. To better serve ever more passengers, KLM intends to expand its range of languages in the coming period.