KLM celebrated 65 years of flying to Scotland this week by bringing the ‘golden age of aviation’ to Edinburgh in the form of an original 1944 DC-3 aircraft.
KLM’s only existing original Dakota DC-3 aircraft built in 1944 and complete with early company livery, flew into Edinburgh airport to commemorate the first-ever KLM flight to Scotland back in 1946 when 18 passengers flew three and half hours from its international hub in Amsterdam to Glasgow airport.
Henri Hourcade, General Manager, KLM UK & Ireland, welcomed Facebook competition prizewinners who won a seat on the DC-3 for a short flight from Edinburgh to Aberdeen.
He said:- “Edinburgh and the other Scottish regions are vitally important to the KLM network and we’re delighted to be celebrating 65 years of flying to this country. As an airline, we do listen to our customer needs and adapt our services to suit. Over a quarter of all of KLM’s UK passengers come from Scotland and that’s why we increased our frequencies from the three Scottish airports we serve to our international hub in Amsterdam earlier this year.
“We are providing increased connectivity to hundreds of destinations around the world via Amsterdam, including some new routes to China, South America, the Caribbean and Rwanda, which I’m sure will be of interest to our business and leisure passengers from Edinburgh.”
Kevin Brown, Managing Director, Edinburgh Airport, said:- “We’re delighted to be helping KLM celebrate this fantastic milestone. Amsterdam is a key hub for Scots travelling and for those visiting our country and KLM provides those passengers with an excellent service. It’s great to see such an iconic plane at Edinburgh and I’m envious of the lucky winners who are getting the opportunity to fly in her.”
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Senior KLM staff welcomed 14 lucky prizewinners who experienced the majestic fuselage of the DC-3 when they took a short flight from Edinburgh to Aberdeen.
