KLM registers 90 per cent load on flights from India: CEO

Premier Dutch carrier KLM has given the Indian market a high priority in global operations as the airline has been registering 90 per cent occupancy on its flights out of Mumbai and Delhi, a top official has said.

In a wide-ranging interview to PTI, KLM's President and CEO Pieter Elbers, however, was not forthcoming on whether the airline along with its partner Air France was interested in investing in the liberalised Indian aviation market.

Noting that India was "traditionally a market which has relatively high load factors", he said, "our average load factor (from India market) is 90 per cent. So, in our network, (the place of) India is placed high".

"India has a very specific position because it has a very effective combination of business traffic and the large Indian community in the world, especially in the US, in Canada and we have perfect connections to that.

"And we have seen a steady growth in the numbers from India," Elbers said on the sidelines of the recent annual meet of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in Sydney.

Though the Indian traffic depended on seasonality, he said specific trends were being experienced in terms of passenger load factor.

Passenger load factor is a measure of seat occupancy.

Observing that new products were being introduced on its busy India route, the chief of the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines said, "we started our latest generation aircraft, the Boeing 787s, for our Mumbai flights. It has all the modern features, including the wi-fi".

On whether it had any plans to invest in the liberalised Indian aviation market along with its partner Air France, Elbers said it usually do not comment on possible financial investments.

"We are investing by introducing our flights," he noted.

KLM -- set up on October 7, 1919 -- is the oldest airline still operating under its original name. The Air France-KLM group was formed after the merger of the two major carriers in May 2004.

While KLM owns 100 per cent of Dutch cargo carrier Martinair, Air France-KLM group holds 25 per cent minority stake in Italian airline Alitalia.

Asked about plans for new destinations in India, Elbers said "well, we always have an eye for new destinations, but we have not taken any decision as yet".

He said the Amsterdam-based carrier re-introduced flights to Mumbai in October 2017 after a gap of over 16 years.

Maintaining that KLM's "cooperation with Jet Airways is helping us to improve our position in India", Elbers said, "so we have KLM flights now from Delhi and Mumbai. We have flights of Jet Airways into Amsterdam from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore".

Last November, Jet Airways and Air France-KLM entered into an agreement beyond code share, enhancing cooperation between the three airlines which would effectively connect 44 places in India with 106 European destinations.

Recalling the re-launch of its flights from Mumbai last year, Elbers said it was very nice to see very positive reactions from the authorities and customers.

He said new products were being introduced for the flights to and from the Indian market, including the recent upgrade of Flying Blue programme for frequent flyers that also serves Indian customers.

Claiming that its biofuel operations to be one of the world's largest, the KLM chief said the airline has already launched flights to Los Angeles and some Norwegian destinations using alternative fuels.

In a bid to reduce aviation's share of the greenhouse gas emissions, Qantas, Virgin Atlantic, United Airlines and some other airlines have been using biofuels in their flights. Most of them carry regular jet fuel along with alternative fuels prepared from a variety of plant sources like jatropha, algae, tallows and other waste oils.

Currently, the aviation sector contributes two per cent of global emissions which is expected to grow to three per cent by 2050.

"You want to have some clear examples. We have probably one of the largest biofuel operations in the world, though the amount of biofuels is still limited. But we operate (biofuel) flights to Los Angeles and to Norway," he said.

Maintaining that the KLM had a programme of carbon emission offsets, he said the customers can buy the offsets and that money is used for planting trees in Panama.

"The programme allows KLM passengers to fly CO2 neutral by investing in Gold Standard carbon offsetting projects like reforestation in Panama.

"And then we have a broad range of initiatives when it comes to drought equipments, when it comes to electricity, when it comes to sustainable catering .. we really have a lot of initiatives around it," Elbers said.

KLM's Engineering and Maintenance department has developed an innovative way to clean aircraft engines.

Washing an aircraft itself through a product known as 'semi-dry wash' requires "an astonishing 80 times less water per wash", he said, adding that rather than 12,000 litres of water, it now takes only 150 litres to wash a large Boeing-777 aircraft.

The Air France-KLM group together carry over 77 million passengers per year. They operate 573 aircraft to fly to 243 destinations in 103 countries.

KLM joined the global airline alliance SkyTeam, of which Air France, Delta Airlines, Alitalia, Korean Air, CSA Czech Airlines and Aeromexico are members.