KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, the world's oldest carrier still operating under its original name, has stepped up plans to be a more sustainable and digital-focused airline.
KLM will celebrate its 100th anniversary on Oct 7 and use innovation and digital technology to strengthen the business for the next century, said Pieter Elbers, president and chief executive of KLM.
"In terms of digitalisation, we are now working with Amazon's Alexa voice-activated system to find solutions in order to facilitate customers, such as voice check-in," he said at yesterday's press briefing. "In addition, AI has been used in our call centre services."
KLM has drafted a series of ambitious plans, including an aim to reduce the airline's total CO2 footprint by 15% by 2030 (compared with CO2 rates in 2005, when the airline first announced the plan).
This is a step towards the 2050 objective of the International Air Transport Association to reduce net CO2 emissions from aviation by 50% in 2050 compared with 2005 rates.
The airline recently launched the "Fly Responsibly" initiative to promote sustainability as more passengers, especially from Europe, become aware of the environmental impact of air travel.
Mr Elbers said during his visit to Bangkok that the airline will replace the Boeing 747 fleet with more eco-friendly 777 and 787 Dreamliner aircraft, which emit less carbon, as part of a fleet renewal programme for providing sustainable aviation.
Besides using sustainable fuel for commercial flights since 2011, the airline aims to establish a biofuel factory by 2021 to provide adequate supply for green aircraft.
Mr Elbers yesterday attended a ceremony to deliver the bronze plaque of the City of Bangkok, a Boeing 747-400, to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) after the aircraft's retirement in November 2018.
The event is part of the celebration of 90 years of flights between Amsterdam and Bangkok.
"We feel honoured to return the name plaque that BMA once gave to KLM as the symbol of friendship between Thailand and the Netherlands to its home," Mr Elbers said.
The long-operated 747 arrived in Amsterdam in 1989 under the name City of Bangkok.
Over 29 years of operation, the City of Bangkok flew 134, 278 hours and carried about 6 million passengers.
The Netherlands-based airline operates in 165 destinations globally with 34,872 employees. It has daily direct flights from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport to Suvarnabhumi and also serves other cities in Thailand in the form of cooperation with partner airline Bangkok Airways, including a daily flight to Phuket.
According to Mr Elbers, Asia is the airline's second-largest network with about a 24% share, due to the increasing traffic on China routes such as daily flights from Amsterdam to Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai.
The US has the largest network with a 25% share.
"There are no plans for new routes in Asia right now," Mr Elbers said. "But we have operated in Asian routes with bigger aircraft like the Boeing 777 instead in order to gain more load factor."