This year, airline company KLM celebrates two happy dates: her 90-year
existence and 75 years flying on Curacao. The oldest commercial airline
company in the world still operating under her original name will
organize several events on the islands throughout this new year.
General Manager Wim Iserief: “KLM’s special solidarity with the
Antillean and Aruban community is central for us. During this
anniversary year, we want to do something special socially or
commercially. We want to start with our passengers, but also with the
travel branch, our employees, and of course the local community,
especially in view of our youth and the elderly.”
KLM officially commemorates on December 22, how 75 years ago after a
successful trans-Atlantic flight, the Fokker 18, the famous ‘Snip’,
landed in Curacao as the first civilian aircraft. The flight departed
from Amsterdam a little after midnight on December 15 of that year - at
that time no Kingdom Day yet, but indeed of great importance for the
entire Kingdom - with Christmas-mail for the family in the West. The
aircraft flew first to the Cape Verdean islands via France, Spain, and
Morocco. The cross-over to Paramaribo started from there. The aircraft
landed on the airport of Paramaribo, Zanderij, on December 20 at 06:00.
The Snip left Paramaribo early in the morning on December 22 and went
first to La Guaira and then continued to Curacao where she landed at
15:00. There was a huge public waiting to experience this moment. The
government has cleared a piece of land along the north coast near Hato
especially for this. The Snip flew that same day to Aruba, where she
made a short intermediate landing. She then circled a few times above
Kralendijk and so implicated the ABC-islands in this inaugural flight.
All those years, KLM continued to maintain a regular flight connection
between Amsterdam and Oranjestad, Willemstad, Kralendijk, and
Philipsburg. KLM celebrates in Suriname her 70-year existence of the
regular service in Paramaribo.
