KLM: Reactivate the United Kingdom for brexit

- KLM's top man Pieter Elbers sees a solution for the Brexit in reactivating the aviation treaty from 1984 with Great Britain.

He says that in conversation with De Telegraaf. The airline is currently experiencing turbulent times due to a series of strikes at its sister company Air France. As a result, the CEO of holding company in Paris, Jean-Marc Janaillac, has left.

In addition to internal troubles, the airline must prepare for the Brexit, which must take place in less than a year. The British market is very important for KLM and Schiphol. Approximately 20% of the clientele comes from the United Kingdom.

'Which way it goes with the brexit is not clear at all, but this can have consequences for the spending. We prepare different scenarios. It would be best if the UK and the Netherlands reactivated their old aviation treaty from 1984. Then we can continue to fly back and forth without restriction ', says president-director Pieter Elbers.

KLM is currently also part of the new negotiations when it comes to the trans-atlantic joint venture with the airlines Delta, Air France, Alitalia and Virgin Atlantic. 'We are almost ready to have the competition authorities look at the deal,' says Elbers.

This is due to the fact that Delta became a shareholder of Air France KLM last year, which in turn has an interest in the British Virgin Atlantic. That last year suffered from the weak pound.

Delta, which has been a shareholder in Virgin Altantic for a few years, has fled flights from the existing joint venture. In the past few years, this has resulted in the mutual cooperation. With the new joint venture, the competition from the long-distance price fighters, such as Norwegian and Level, must be kept at a distance.

'We expect to be able to offer our customers more in the British market through the cooperation with Virgin Atlantic. They fly from London. We did not have this option at first, we mainly offered other destinations in other parts of England ', says Elbers.

Invalid email address. Please fill in again.

Unsubscribe with 1 click