10 Companies that Changed the World
6. KLM
Royal Dutch Airlines, best known by its Dutch language initials KLM, is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM’s headquarters is in Amstelveen, near its hub at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. KLM operates scheduled passenger and cargo services to more than 130 destinations worldwide. It is the oldest airline in the world still operating under its original name. As of 2013 it had 32,505 employees.
KLM was founded in 1919 as the first commercial airline in the world. The first ever commercial passenger flight took place in 1920, between London and Amsterdam. In 1921, KLM started regular scheduled services across Europe.
KLM revolutionized world travel. Before the introduction of the passenger fleet people thought of airplanes as luxury and military use vehicles. KLM changed that perception. KLM pioneered intercontinental air travel by initiating services to Batavia (modern day Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies in 1924. In September 1929, regular scheduled services between Amsterdam and Batavia commenced. Until the the Second World War, this was the world’s longest-distance scheduled service by airplane. KLM was also behind the first transatlantic flight between Amsterdam and Curacao, in 1934.
KLM brought the idea of world travel to a whole new level. Before KLM, it took weeks and months to get from one continent to another. After KLM, it became a matter of hours. The globalized world we live in today would not have been possible if not for the speedy and comfortable transcontinental air travel.
