KLM Opens Exhibition: “Exploring KLM’s 95-Year Journey”

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines celebrates its 95th anniversary on Tuesday, 7 October. To mark the occasion, KLM President & CEO, Camiel Eurlings, will open the exhibition “Exploring KLM’s 95-Year Journey”, in the Museum Jan van der Togt in Amstelveen. The selection of historical material on display – photographs, posters, dinnerware – reflect KLM’s rich history. The exhibition
will be open to the public from 19 September to 12 October.

 “I am extremely grateful to all KLM’s employees for their dedication to the company. The ‘blue spirit’ of our staff, combined with their enterprising attitudes and their resilience, form the backbone of our KLM. This is what has made KLM such a strong company and magnificent brand for the last 95 years. And we can see this throughout the exhibition. I am determined to continue to work hard to ensure that KLM at 100 is even stronger, more spirited, larger and more sustainable than ever”.

 Camiel Eurlings, KLM President & CEO The “journey” begins in 1919 and ends in the present, with a look ahead to the next five years and to KLM’s centenary anniversary in 2019. The collection is distributed across the 1920s, 1930s, 1950s, 1970s, 1990s, and the present. The visitor will “journey” from a period in which flying was a luxury, available only to the happy few, and when a journey could take up to three weeks, and on into the 1950s, when flying became more accessible with the introduction of Economy Class. The 1970s saw the introduction of the Boeing 747 wide body, which could accommodate the growing volume of passengers. In this decade KLM began to distinguish itself from the rest by developing its own, recognisable house style. Marketing developed further in the 1990s, with the introduction of the swan icon, which went on to be used for many years.