KLM Restoring Most North American Routes

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has announced that its North American network is nearly back to pre-pandemic levels, save for one destination.

But the airline did say that seating capacity and flight frequencies will still be far below that of its 2019 levels.

“Although there are still significant travel restrictions in the US and Canada, the vaccination rate is increasing both overseas and in Europe, which should gradually reduce restrictions,” KLM said in a statement. “KLM is prepared for an increase in demand and is ready to welcome its customers safely and responsibly.”

There will be a total of 16 North American destinations in the summer of 2021, just one city less than what the airline offered in 2019. Salt Lake City is the odd city out, but customers in this Utah city will still have a direct flight to Amsterdam with KLM partner Delta Air Lines.

KLM intends to add Las Vegas and Minneapolis over the summer, but this will depend on the end of travel restrictions between the United States and Europe.

For the winter season, which runs from Oct. 31, 2021, to March 26, 2022, KLM will add two new destinations to its North American routes in Cancun and Orlando.

The frequency of flights to the 16 destinations this summer will be lower than in the summer of 2019. Both frequency and seating capacity vary per destination.

“Thanks to the increasing rate of vaccination and the gradual reopening of Europe and also the United States, we expect that these numbers will gradually increase,” KLM said. “We are very agile when it comes to planning our network and of course we consider market demand.”