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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0013.PDF
FLIGHT, 2 January 1953 13 This K.L.M. Convair is pictured at Frankfurt, terminal point for many of the airline's European services. FLYING DUTCHMEN K.L.M.—An Outline Survey of Equipment, Activities and Policy By ROBERT BLACKBURN FOR a country with a population only one and a half times that of Greater London, Holland has done remark ably well in commercial aviation. At least thirty nations are larger than Holland, in terms of area and population, but few are responsible for as large a proportion of the world's scheduled air traffic. A striking indication of the important posi tion won by this small but active state was provided by a recent I.C.A.O. table showing the amounts of air traffic per formed in 1951 by the member-nations. Only the U.S.A., United Kingdom, Brazil, France and Australia flew more ton/kilometres on scheduled services than the Netherlands, which performed over 119 million—more than half the U.K. total (231 million). Holland's success as an air-faring nation is, of course, due to the enterprise of the "chosen instrument" —Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij (Royal Dutch •Airlines), better known by the famous initials K.L.M. The name of the company is inseparable from that of Dr. Albert Plesman, who founded it in October, 1919, and remains at its helm today. It has been said in Holland that Plesman is second only to the Dutch Royal Family in popular esteem. Netherlanders are undoubtedly among the most air-minded people in the world, and they share Prince Bernhard's appre ciation of flying; his membership of K.L.M.'s board of control expresses active national interest in airline affairs. The pioneers of aviation have always been practical men— men who would admit perhaps to being shrewd and stubborn, but not to having powers of prediction. And yet there must have been something of the visionary in any man who, in 1919, could foresee the rapid growth of air transport. Such a man was Plesman, then a lieutenant in the Dutch Air Force. His first action was to stimulate public interest in aviation by staging, in Amsterdam, a static and flying exhibition of aircraft. About 4,000 visitors paid for joy-rides and many thousands had their first sight of aircraft at close quarters. Dr. Albert Plesman. president of K.L.M The success of this scheme was almost immediate. Within a year K.L.M. had been formed (backed by Government, shipping, commercial and banking interests) and was operating, under charter, its first Amsterdam-London services— three times weekly with D.H. 9 As carrying two passengers. The company is now in its 33rd financial year, and the fleet has grown from four machines to over 70, the route mileage from 600 to over 100,000. Nearly five million people have travelled on K.L.M. aircraft, which carry the legend of the Flying Dutchman to every continent. The network grows constantly, and over five years the average distance flown by each passenger has increased from 900 to over 1,400 miles. Europe provides the airline operators with very few profitable routes, and K.L.M. is not alone in seeking most of its revenue farther afield. With the obvious exception of B.E.A., the major European airlines offer more capacity on intercontinental routes than on their services within the European region. There are various factors behind this preference for long-haul operations . traffic~centres are often situated too close together; European wages are low and fares are still too high; airmail rates are lower than on long-haul routes; and European weather and terrain are obstacles to intensive night flying. Above all, the fact that the European region is split into so many inde pendent states is responsible not only for a web of frontier formalities but also for over-competition between the many national airlines. As a result, something like three-fifths of the output of European airlines is in the form of long-haul traffic. In the case of K.L.M., however, capacity offered on regional services, including those in the Caribbean area, represented only one-fifth of the total available (225 million ton kmj in 1951. Forced to develop long-haul traffic by the lack of economic routes in Holland and the obstacles to purely
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