Further growth ahead for KLM in China: COO Elbers

Royal Dutch airlines KLM already offers a number of destinations to China, but COO Pieter Elbers still sees possibilities for further growth in the future. 

"We embarked on a growth strategy in China from 2005, and from that year on we have added both frequencies as destinations," Elbers explained. 

"KLM has the largest number of destinations into China. We now offer 58 weekly flights to 8 Chinese destinations," he said in a recent exclusive interview with Xinhua. 

KLM, which was established in 1919 and has been operated until now as the eldest Airlines company in the world, started its business in China in 1996. As a global company based in Europe, KLM faced a lot of challenges when it entered into China. 

"We see that the language and cultural issue is clearly different," the 42-year-old COO said. 

In order to get closer to the Chinese traveler, KLM provided a series of Chinese onboard services. 

"We have on board of our flight a range of products to make it more suitable to our Chinese costumers, we have Chinese cabin crew on board, we have adjusted our meals into a more Chinese, we have our in-flight entertainment system adjusted, videos, music, etc. on board, and we have an exchange of personnel." 

"Well, clearly there is no karaoke on board, but we do have hot snacks, preferred especially by our Chinese costumers," he added with a smile. 

Aside from the onboard services, KLM has tried to get closer to the Chinese customer through various means, even including the Chinese twitter "weibo". By inviting the popular Dutch cartoon Miffy to explore the world together, KLM has now more than 130,000 followers. 

"As a foreign company we need to catch up with these Chinese developments and yet at the same time not lose our Dutch identity," Elbers explained, "Miffy was a good bridge between our Dutch roots and something that is quite well known in China, and we got very positive feedback from our Chinese costumers in China."