Summary
- KLM has resumed every day flights to China and plans to extend flights to Taipei. Nonetheless, airspace restrictions and longer flight times are impacting efficiency and increasing costs.
- KLM stays cautiously optimistic about expanding within the Chinese market despite the present economic climate.
- While KLM doesn’t consider they are going to return to secondary markets in China within the short term, they acknowledge the appeal of cities like Chengdu, Hangzhou, and Xiamen.
With the post-pandemic era approaching, mainstream airlines are actively restoring their direct flights to China. Last week, Easy Flying was invited to a small roundtable in Amsterdam organized by Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) during its 104th-anniversary celebration event. KLM CEO Marjan Rintel and Netherlands Director Bas Gerressen joined the roundtable.
Photo: Joanna Bailey | Easy Flying
Through the meeting, when asked in regards to the impact of Russian airspace restrictions on KLM, Bas Gerressen, the KLM Netherlands Director, noted that changing flight routes because of Russian airspace restrictions were having a negative impact on KLM’s flight operations. He said,
“Our network to Asia and likewise specifically to China continues to be increase. The rerouting does have a negative impact, but not an excessive amount of without delay.”
Bas Gerressen further mentioned that KLM has just 4 destinations in Asia without delay, noting that the carrier is ‘going backwards’ in comparison with pre-COVID levels. He commented,
“We have gone back to every day at Shanghai, every day to Beijing and Hong Kong. For Taipei, we could have 4 flights per week. So we’re going backward. We’re not yet at the extent before COVID, so we still must construct it up.”
KLM has already resumed every day flights from Amsterdam to Shanghai at the top of April and every day flights from Amsterdam to Beijing at the top of May. Along with the flights resumed by Air France, the Air France-KLM Group currently operates 27 passenger flights per week to its 4 destinations in Greater China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Taipei.
Photo: Tupungato / Shutterstock
Gerressen added that the predominant impact of Russian airspace closures is the extra flight time required to make the connections. Taking the Shanghai to Amsterdam route for example, it initially took only 11 hours. Nonetheless, because of Russian airspace restrictions, it now takes roughly 13.5 hours. These extra 2.5 hours make it inconceivable for the unique crew to fulfill EASA’s requirements for crew duty time.
“The predominant impact is on the variety of pilots. We have now to hold an additional pilot if we fly an extended trip, and if we use that pilot for that flight, we will use not use them for other flights. So we now have to scrape off another routes within the network to fill the flights. That makes it costly that makes it inefficient.”
The route maps below show a pre-airspace restriction KLM flight to Seoul, compared with the present routing taken to avoid Russian airspace (data courtesy of Flightradar24).
Cautious optimism for expanding in China
When asked about KLM’s plans to expand further into the Chinese market, Gerressen expressed cautious optimism. He stated that KLM still believes that despite the less favorable economic performance of the Chinese market in comparison with before, it stays promising.
“I do not think we might return to secondary destinations within the short term because … we simply cannot do it, because we now have to fly with 4 pilots. But once we get back to the situation where either Russian airspace opens or we now have enough pilots and fleet availability then, yes, it could turn into an option again.”
KLM anticipates a high demand for travel within the foreseeable future and is keen to revive its previously strong footprint in Asia. Bas Gerressen served as General Manager for the Greater China region of the Air France-KLM Group from 2013 to 2017, so he may be very accustomed to the Chinese market. He noted, specifically, the attractions of a few of China’s larger cities, commenting,
“I know the way necessary the secondary cities are, and the way beautiful they’re. I have been to all of them. Chengdu, Hangzhou, Xiamen are all very charming, and when it comes to performance, they all the time did quite well. They may come back, but not within the short term.”
Pre-pandemic, KLM flew to many more Asian destinations than it does today, including all three Chinese cities Gerressen mentioned. It also flew to Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and a number of other destinations in Japan and Indonesia that are usually not served today. While the pandemic is the first reason these destinations are usually not back in motion, the restrictions on Russian airspace will inevitably make the airline think twice about adding back its previously lucrative secondary cities.