I say QANTAS (1920) - I saw it on an advert for them on TV last week so it must be true.

TV would never lie to me. 

Qantas was formed  16/11/1920, for any former colonial friends that's the 16th of November!

Just looking into the ages of these airlines...British Airways formed September 1972...that's ridiculous, I'm older than that!

My guess is KLM, and a quick glance at their corporate website says founded October 7, 1919, first flight May 17, 1920.

Does that pip Quantas by the faintest of breath?

My vote goes to KLM, although you could argue that it ceased to be 'KLM' when the Air France Group got their hands on it back in 2003.

QANTAS can possibly lay claim to having the same operating name for a longer time-span than anyone else, but they're certainly not the oldest airline, per se.

 

Titch

To go off on a slight tangent, were KLM operating during World War 2?

EDIT -  Nevermind, I found it myself - seems they operated passenger flights in the Caribbean.

 

It's KLM  - founded 7th October 1919.

So apparently TV did lie to me and I'm not happy about it. Next thing I know is that one of you will be telling me that the CIA didn't really have a secret crime-fighting helicopter called Airwolf.

Re. QANTAS. It is a moot legal/corporate point; but did not QANTAS undergo a name change from its original Queensland and Northern Territory Air Services to "Qantas Airways", or something like that? And, of course, QANTAS continued flight operations right through WWII. Remember their ultra-long range Catalina ops? But I guess KLM wins on earliest.......

Qantas was founded on the 16th November 1920 as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Ltd

Life started out with an Avro 504K

In 1934, QANTAS Limited and Britain's Imperial Airways now British Airways formed a new company, Qantas Empire Airways Limited, in 1967 Qantas Empire Airways changed its name to Qantas Airways, the name of the airline today

Zounds....now I remember. When I was flying the line in Wombat-Land and Papua New Guinea during the 1960s, some of we alleged humourists used to make ribald jokes about QANTAS's "Empire"...just where was this alleged Empire exactly? In those years some of we non-international peasant aviators felt that some in QANTAS held the view that nobody else was up to operating long-haul sectors. Efforts by other Aussie carriers to get into that market were strongly resisted by QANTAS. And for many years the Federal Govt.(s) supported that view. They were strange times and long before the term "Open Skies" began to be whispered.....but please don't get me wrong chaps. For, by and large, they are a great carrier. All that is needed to make them even greater is to amalgamate with Air New Zealand.......comments chaps ????

Doing a little research: (1) KLM (Koninklijke luchtvaartmaatschappij), founded October 7, 1919; (2) Avianca, founded as SCADTA (Sociedad Colombo-Alemana de Transporte Aéreo) on December 5, 1919; (3) Qantas (formerly Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services, Ltd.), founded November 3, 1920; (4) Mexicana (Compañía Mexicana de Aviación, S.A.), founded July 12, 1921 So I think everybody is biased toward QANTAS and/or KLM but there are two Latin Airlines in the oldest but nobody has even metioned