Improvements to KLM London City - Amsterdam
by JFC AdminIn response to competition on the London City to Amsterdam route KLM Cityhopper is making steps to make their offering more competitive with rival VLM Airlines.
When VLM started to compete on this route they offered better day return pricing and parking at the gate at Amsterdam Schiphol. Both VLM and KLM Cityhopper use 50 seat Fokker 50 aircraft on this route. Typically small aircraft at Schiphol do not park at the gates instead you are bussed in from a remote stand. To gain a competitive advantage VLM paid the extra costs required for their aircraft to park at the gate, KLM Cityhopper have now followed suit on this route.
Also KLM have now removed their minimum stay restrictions on some of their lower fares (except promotional fares) this means you don’t have to stay overnight to get a low fare, this is good news for people who have meetings in Amsterdam. KLM’s flights from Heathrow still have the minimum stay requirements on their low fares so it means that now it’s better value to fly from City than it is to Heathrow.
VLM has also recently launched an online check-in service, something which KLM has had for a number of years.
It’s good to see competition has improved the quality of both KLM and VLM’s product on this route.
For those that are wondering the name VLM was not an attempt to confuse people with KLM they have similar names because KLM (Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij - Royal Aviation Company) is a Dutch airline and VLM (Vlaamse Luchttransportmaatschappij - Flemish Air Transport Company) is Flemish. KLM Cityhopper was originally a separate airline called NLM (Nederlandse Luchtvaart Maatschappij - Dutch Aviation Company) that was purchased by KLM in 1990.
December 28th, 2007 at 9:54 am
[…] The high level of service is what has made VLM move from a small regional Belgian carrier based in Antwerp to the largest airline at London City (although as CityJet has larger aircraft they have more seats available). I think it’s important for KLM to recognise that this level of service will be important particularly on routes where they compete with rail travel such as London - Manchester, Brussels or Antwerp. In the past competition between KLM and VLM on the London City - Amsterdam route has made KLM improve its service on this route. Hopefully these improvements will stay as BA are launching a London City - Amsterdam service in 2008, both KLM and VLM offer a better frequency to Amsterdam than BA is planning on offering so BA will have a hard job competing on this route unless they can offer a better service. […]