Boeing and Air France-KLM Group have finalized an order for 25 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, with options. The order was signed in late December 2011 and was recorded on Boeing's Orders & Deliveries website, attributed to an unidentified customer. A preliminary agreement was first announced on September 16, 2011.

"By making the 787 a key part of its fleet renewal, Air France-KLM strengthens its position as a worldwide leader," said Jim Albaugh, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. "Reaction to the Dreamliner's entry into service has been phenomenal and we look forward to seeing passengers of Air France-KLM fly on this revolutionary airplane."

The Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner is a slightly larger version of the 787-8 and will carry 250-290 passengers on routes of 8,000 to 8,500 nautical miles (14,800 to 15,750 kilometers). The 787 provides airlines with incredible fuel efficiency, resulting in exceptional environmental performance. The airplane uses 20 percent less fuel than today's similarly sized airplanes. It also travels at a speed of Mach 0.85, which is similar to the speed of today's fastest wide-body airplanes.

The order increases the number of 787-9s on order to 305 airplanes. The 787 Dreamliner family, including the 787-8 and 787-9, has accumulated a total of 860 orders from 59 customers located all over the world.

Eight French companies partner with Boeing on the 787 Dreamliner. They include Dassault Systemes (software solutions), Labinal (wiring), Latecoere (passenger doors), Messier-Bugatti-Dowty (main and nose landing gear, electric brakes), Michelin (aftermarket tyres), Radiall (connectors), Thales (electric power conversion system, flight display, in-flight entertainment system), and Zodiac Aerospace (primary power management system, emergency slides, water and waste systems, cabin interiors, galley inserts and seats, and other equipments).

The Air France-KLM Group is a long-time and valued customer with a large Boeing fleet of 188 airplanes in operation, including 74 for Air France and 114 for KLM. Air France-KLM is one of the world's largest 777 operators.

News Release Issued: PARIS, Jan. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/

Peter Goossens’ restaurant Hof van Cleve has three Michelin stars. Goossens was also ranked 15th in the world’s top 50 restaurants in 2011.

“KLM is continuing to work with top chefs and sommeliers,” says Erik Varwijk, Managing Director KLM. Peter Goossens has become a household name in the international culinary world. KLM is therefore extremely proud to be working with him.”

“It is a great honour for me to be given the opportunity to send my creations around the world. Working with the group of professionals at KLM and the team at my restaurant Hof van Cleve, we have produced a highly successful result,” according to Goossens.

Peter Goossens’ meals will be served from 1 December 2011 to the end of September 2012 on intercontinental flights from Amsterdam. KLM and Peter Goossens have developed a total of three menus. When composing the menus Goossens drew his inspiration from typically Flemish products, giving them an international twist. Wines to accompany each meal have been specially selected by the Hof van Cleve sommelier, who has several times been named the best sommelier in Belgium.
KLM Press release, 28th of November 2011, Schiphol

On 15 May 2012 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will make its first flight to Lusaka, Zambia. Starting today passengers can book the flights through KLM’s reservation system at www.klm.com. Lusaka will become KLM’s 72nd intercontinental destination.

KLM will serve Lusaka three times a week using an Airbus A330-200. The aircraft has space for 243 passengers, 30 in World Business Class and 213 in Economy Class.

Starting 15 May 2012, flight KL561 will depart from Schiphol on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays at 12:30 hrs, arriving in Lusaka the same day at 22:10 hrs. The return flight, KL562, will depart Lusaka at 23:55 hrs on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday nights and arrive in Amsterdam at 09:55 hrs the next morning.

Zambia is experiencing strong growth, thanks to its vigorous mining industry. Moreover, this new destination for KLM will create a direct link between Zambia’s flourishing flower industry and the Netherlands, which is the largest junction in the worldwide flower industry.

Zambia also offers a wide variety of tourist attractions. Tourism in Zambia is centred around the city of Livingstone, located on the banks of the Zambezi river and close to the famed Victoria Falls.

Together with Kenya Airways, KLM offers another thirteen flights a week to Lusaka via Nairobi. Thanks to the partnership with Kenya Airways, KLM and Air France can offer an extensive network throughout Africa. The alliance flies to many destinations including Harare, Mombassa, Lilongwe, and Bujumbura.

KLM press release, Amstelveen | 23 November 2011

Aerolíneas Argentinas, one of the leading airlines in South America, signed today reciprocal code-share agreements with both Air France and KLM, two major European carriers.

With these agreements, signed today in Aerolíneas Argentinas headquarters in Buenos Aires:

Air France and KLM will offer their clients a significant number of new South American destinations operated by Aerolíneas Argentinas beyond Buenos Aires. These new destinations will include such important cities as Cordoba (Argentina), Mendoza (Argentina), Rosario (Argentina), Montevideo (Uruguay) and Asuncion (Paraguay).

Aerolíneas Argentinas clients will have access to a number of new European destinations operated by Air France and KLM beyond Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam-Schiphol. The new destinations will include important French cities Nice, Marseille, Toulouse, Lyon and Bordeaux and other main European destination such as Berlin and Munich.

The carriers will also be offering reciprocal frequent flyer benefits in their loyalty programs. Over 1.5 million members of AerolineasPlus, the Aerolineas Argentinas frequent flyer programme and the 19 million AIR FRANCE-KLM Flying Blue members, will be able to earn miles and having access to award tickets on the networks of the three airlines, more than 250 destinations.

These agreements will become effective in the first quarter of 2012.

"This is an important step for the three carriers and will allow Aerolíneas to increase both the inbound tourism as well as its presence in a key market for the company as is Europe" said Mariano Recalde, president of Aerolíneas Argentinas.

Meanwhile, Erik Varwijk, Executive Vice President International & Netherlands for Air France - KLM, said: "Air France and KLM are the first two European code-share partners of Aerolíneas Argentinas. We are therefore proud of this cooperation offering our clients connections to both domestic and international South American destinations beyond Buenos Aires".

The agreements were signed within the framework of the next entry of the Argentine carrier to the SkyTeam global alliance scheduled for 2012.

Aerolíneas Argentinas, Buenos Aires | 1 November 2011

In an uncertain economic context, driven by reduced economic growth and high fuel prices, the Air France/KLM group has reduced its growth ambition for winter 2011-12 schedule to 3.4%* (ASK compared to winter 2010-11). The long haul network shows an overall growth of only 2.6%, while the medium haul growth is 6.2%, primarily driven by introduction of French bases project and continuation of new schedule structure at Amsterdam Schiphol hub. * all growth figures mentioned in this document include a 0.7 point mechanical increase related to the presence of a 29th day in February 2012. * all growth figures mentioned in this document include a 0.7 point mechanical increase related to the presence of a 29th day in February 2012.

This winter, starting October 30, KLM is adding five new intercontinental destinations and one European destination to its network.

KLM is continuing the flight schedule structure that was introduced with the last summer season. The connections between European and intercontinental flights have been improved so passengers have more choice. Thanks to this flight schedule structure, called Seven Wave New Balance, KLM is able to expand its South American and Asian destinations. It also provides the flexibility to be able to respond adequately to political and economic developments in North Africa, among others.

Europe: KLM continues to expand flight frequencies
KLM continues to raise its frequencies in Europe which started in the summer. Compared to the previous winter season KLM has added 15 regular flights a day. Eight of these are in Great Britain, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, in order to enhance the traditionally strong position of KLM in these areas. The Amsterdam-Aalborg route, which was successfully started in the summer, is being continued.

KLM is expanding strongly in Switzerland with an extra service to Zürich and Geneva, and by taking over two daily flights to Basel/Mulhouse from CityJet, a subsidiary of Air France. In Germany, KLM is expanding the number of flights to Frankfurt and Berlin. In Eastern Europe KLM is expanding with an extra flight to Prague, by intensifying collaborations with partner companies (Aeroflot, Bulgaria Air, Belavia, Georgian Airways and Olympic Air) and by using bigger aircraft for flights to Budapest, Bucharest, Warsaw and Moscow.

North America: optimisation of Joint Venture
Together with Delta Air Lines, partner in the transatlantic joint venture, KLM will adapt the capacity to meet the seasonal demand and deal with the industry-wide overcapacity in the transatlantic market. In this context the service to Dallas-Fort Worth will be suspended until the summer.

This coming winter season a non-stop flight to Miami, which is an important Florida destination for the Dutch market, will be offered four times a week. For Houston the second daily flight in the full Business Class configuration will be replaced by a KLM Airbus 330-200 service, which means KLM is increasing the connectivity for the Houston market in the Economy Class segment. For Vancouver an Airbus 330-200 is used. In codeshare with its partner WestJet, KLM is offering 12 new destinations in Canada.

The major hubs of Delta Air Lines in the United States continue to be served as usual in order to guarantee maximum connectivity with the American market: there are two daily flights to Atlanta, two to Minneapolis and three to Detroit. Together with Delta Air Lines, KLM is offering 26 flights a week to New York, including three a day to John F. Kennedy and five a week to Newark.

South America: important growth market
South America is an important growth market for KLM. KLM is strongly increasing its range of flights for both tourists and business travellers, as well as improving its flight schedules.

Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Buenos Aires (Argentina) have been added to the network as new destinations. There are three direct flights to these metropolises each week, using a Boeing 777-200. This is KLM's return to these destinations after a temporary absence. The capacity to São Paulo is further increased by the use of a Boeing 777-300 on a number of days. In codeshare with partners Gol and Aerolineas Argentinas, a large number of secondary destinations in South America are being offered via São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. In order to reduce the flight time for travellers and increase the efficiency of the operations, flights to and from Quito/Guayaquil will be direct this winter season, without stopovers in Bonaire.

Central America: significant increase in capacity
KLM is expanding its capacity in the Caribbean. Havana (Cuba) and Punta Cana (Dominican Republic) have been added as new destinations, which increases the number of destinations in the Caribbean to six. There are a total of three flights a week to Havana, of which two are combined with Punta Cana.

Flights to the Dutch Antilles remain as popular as ever. The number of frequencies is therefore being increased: Curacao is changing from seven to nine, Aruba from three to five and Bonaire from six to seven times a week.

KLM is changing to a daily service for Panama. In addition, the onward connections to destinations in Central America in conjunction with partner company Copa Airlines have been further improved by reducing the connection times. This confirms the successful collaboration with Copa Airlines once again.

Africa: reinforcing the position
The oil destination in Angola, Luanda, is being added to the KLM network. Luanda will be serviced twice a week with a Boeing 777-200. In addition, KLM is increasing the number of regular flights to Cape Town from five to seven times a week in order to satisfy the seasonal demand.

This winter season KLM is maintaining the frequency level in Africa for destinations like Kigali, Entebbe, Lagos, Accra and Johannesburg and, with joint-venture partner Kenya Airways, is offering a large number of secondary destinations via Nairobi.

Because of the unstable political situation in North Africa the capacity to Tripoli and Cairo has been adjusted. KLM will continue to service Cairo on a daily basis with a 737-700. Operations to Tripoli will be resumed as soon as circumstances permit.

Middle East: selective expansion
KLM aims to stabilise and selectively expand its network in the Middle East. For example, the number of regular flights to Damman and Doha are being increased from five to six a week and the capacity to Teheran is expanded with the use of a 777-200. For both the tourist and the business market the service to Dubai remains attractive by maintaining a morning and afternoon schedule.

Asia: increasing the market position
This winter KLM is consolidating its strong position in China. In addition to daily flights to Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai (12 times a week), KLM will also fly to Chengdu, Hangzhou and Xiamen three times a week this winter. For Chengdu this means a frequency increase from twice to three times a week compared to the last winter season. A service to Xiamen was started the past summer season and will be continued. KLM partner China Southern Airlines is continuing flights between Amsterdam and Guangzhou (three times a week) this winter in close cooperation with KLM.

For Japan KLM is adapting its capacity to the seasonal demand. KLM has reduced the number of flights to Tokyo from 10 to 7 a week, while an extra service has been added to Osaka. As a result KLM can offer a daily flight to both destinations.

In Southeast Asia KLM is increasing services to its successful destination Denpasar (Bali, Indonesia) from four to five times a week, with a stopover in Singapore.

In conjunction with Delta Air Lines the capacity to Mumbai (India) will be increased this winter season with the use of an Airbus 330-300.

Fleet
KLM continues to invest in clean and efficient aircraft in order to guarantee its customers optimal service. After this winter the complete medium-distance fleet will consist of a new generation of Boeing 737 aircraft. Two new Airbus 330-300s will be added to the long-haul fleet.

For further information please contact KLM Media Relations: +31-20-6494545

KLM press release, Amsterdam | 29 September 2011