KLM plans to expand its European and intercontinental network

KLM plans to further expand its European and intercontinental flying in the coming months, restoring connectivity to 78% of the destinations it originally intended to serve this summer.

Dutch flag-carrier KLM is expanding its route network in July, restoring service to 28 European and six long-haul destinations.

The additions mean the SkyTeam alliance member will serve 78% of the destinations it originally planned to fly to before the COVID-19 crisis. More than 3,000 KLM flights are set to depart Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) in July.

As a result, the number of flights in the month will increase by more than 60% compared to June. This represents about 25-30% of KLM’s intended number of flights.

In June, the airline expanded its intercontinental network to include Aruba (AUA), Bonaire (BON), Paramaribo (PBM), Quito (UIO) and Saint Maarten (SXM).

Six more destinations are returning in July, including Calgary (YYC), Denpasar (DPS), Jakarta (CGK), San Francisco (SFO), Vancouver (YVR) and Washington (IAD).

In total, KLM will serve 51 intercontinental destinations next month, although about half are cargo-only. The carrier said that passenger services will resume once authorities relax travel restrictions.

Alicante (ALC), Bilbao (BIO), Bologna (BLQ), Ibiza (IBZ), Porto (OPO) and Split (SPU) are among the European destinations to resume, increasing KLM’s network in the region to 73 destinations, up from 45 in June.

“Our customers want to travel again. We are therefore expanding the network slowly and carefully,” KLM president and CEO Pieter Elbers said. “With all the hygiene measures taken on board and on the ground, we are doing this as safely as possible.”

Data provided by OAG Schedules Analyser shows that KLM originally intended to operate 168 routes during the 2020 summer season, offering in excess of 25 million seats.