KLM turns 107 on 7 October 2026. According to Wikipedia's KLM article, eight Dutch businessmen, including Frits Fentener van Vlissingen, founded the airline on 7 October 1919, and Albert Plesman became its first administrator and director. The same article describes KLM as the oldest airline still operating under its original name.

It was Royal before it existed

The "Royal" in Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij came early. Wikipedia says Queen Wilhelmina awarded the yet-to-be-founded company its "Royal" title in September 1919, a month before the founding date.

The first flight

KLM's first flight took place on 17 May 1920. Jerry Shaw, KLM's first pilot, flew from Croydon Airport, London, to Amsterdam in a leased de Havilland DH-16. By the end of that year KLM had carried 440 passengers and 22 tons of freight, so the airline was moving cargo as well as people from its very first year.

The man behind it

Wikimedia Commons holds a 1919 photograph of Plesman, seated at right, with Lieutenant Hofstede. The Commons record says the two were behind the organisation of the ELTA aviation show, and its licence is listed as public domain. It is a plain office portrait: two men, a map on the wall, a desk full of paper.

A 777 with his name on it

KLM later put Plesman's name on a Boeing 777-200ER. A photograph on Commons shows PH-BQA at Los Angeles on 18 August 2007, and its title records the aircraft as named Albert Plesman. The Commons description gives its delivery date as 24 October 2003. I can only vouch for 2007: I do not know whether PH-BQA still carries the name.

KLM on my screen

The BBBRadar desk unit shows one aircraft label at a time: type, registration, route where one is filed, callsign and altitude. A few KLM labels I have logged:

  • PH-BHM, a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, as KLM755 at 31,975 feet on 27 September 2026.
  • PH-BXF, a Boeing 737-800, as KLM93B at 22,250 feet on 27 September 2026, with the route reading AMS to BHX, Amsterdam to Birmingham.
  • PH-BQN, a Boeing 777-200, as KLM744 at 33,000 feet on 6 October 2026, with the route reading LIM to AMS, Lima to Amsterdam.
  • PH-BXI, a Boeing 737-800, as KLM81D at 22,000 feet on 6 October 2026, also AMS to BHX.

The long-haul 777 and the Amsterdam to Birmingham 737 are the same airline, 107 years on from a leased biplane crossing the Channel.

Why the wording matters

The claim is narrow on purpose: oldest airline still operating under its original name. Wikipedia notes that KLM celebrated its centenary in 2019, and that it was the first airline to reach one under that distinction. Whether other airlines are older in some other sense is a separate argument, and a good one for the comments.

Sources