KLM Airlines

KLM was founded on 7 October 1919, making it the oldest carrier in the world still operating under its original name, though the company stopped operating during the Second World War—apart from the operations in the Dutch Antilles in the Caribbean. The first KLM flight was on 17 May 1920, from Croydon Airport, London to Amsterdam carrying two British journalists and a number of newspapers. It was flown by an Aircraft Transport and Travel Airco DH.16, callsign G-EALU, piloted by Jerry Shaw. In 1920 KLM carried 440 passengers and 22 tons of freight. In 1921 KLM started scheduled services. By 1926 it was offering flights to Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels, Paris, London, Bremen, Copenhagen and Malmö, using primarily Fokker F2 & Fokker F.VIIb.

Intercontinental service to the Netherlands East Indies (today's Republic of Indonesia) started in 1929. This was for several years the world's longest scheduled air route. The service used Fokker F.VIIb, although the first non-scheduled KLM flight had been in 1924 by Fokker F7 registration H-NACC piloted by Van der Hoop. In 1930 KLM carried 15,143 passengers. The Douglas DC-2 was introduced on the Batavia service in 1934.
The first transatlantic KLM test flight was between Amsterdam and Curaçao in December 1934 using the Fokker F-XVIII "Snip." The first of the airline's Douglas DC-3 aircraft were delivered in 1936 and these replaced the DC-2s on the service via Batavia to Sydney. KLM were the first airline to serve Manchester's new Ringway airport from June 1938. KLM was the only civilian airline to operate the Douglas DC-5, using four examples in the Dutch East and West Indies between May 1940 and late 1941.

In 1950 KLM carried 356,069 passengers. On 25 July 1957, the airline introduced its first flight simulator for the Douglas DC-7C - the last KLM aircraft with piston engines - which opened the first trans-polar route from Amsterdam via Anchorage to Tokyo on 1 November 1958. Each crew flying the transpolar route over the Arctic was equipped with a winter survival kit, including a 7.62 mm selective-fire AR-10 carbine for use against polar bears in the event the plane was forced down onto the polar ice.

Beginning in September 1959, the airline introduced the four-engined turboprop Lockheed Electra onto some of its European and Middle Eastern routes. In March 1960, KLM introduced the first Douglas DC-8 jet into its fleet. In 1966, KLM introduced the Douglas DC-9 on European and Middle East routes.