As it celebrates its 100th birthday, KLM is feeling penitent. And it thinks you should too.
British Airways is not the only airline celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. KLM is too and the Dutch carrier is celebrating in a very different way than its British counterpart. In fact, it seems to me like it is not celebrating all…just mourning.
Take a look at the new “KLM Fly Responsibly” video:
Fly Responsibly is KLM’s commitment to taking a leading role in creating a more sustainable future for aviation.
Essentially, it tells you to fly less for the sake of the environment and if you do, donate to offset your carbon emission.
I’m certainly not here to debate climate change, but I will note this: KLM is not stupid. Flight shaming has caught on, especially in Europe. The new ad is shrewd ruse to virtue signal, thereby giving KLM more credibility…and more business from a new generation of travelers who give lip service to the environment.
This commercial is supposed to warm our progressive hearts so that we praise KLM for being so forward-thinking when it comes to the environment. Don’t fly us, take the train!
But I’m not impressed. KLM depends upon polluting to survive…it’s an airline for goodness sakes. This type of commercial is nothing more than a ruse to make poeple feel better about themselves for flying KLM.
CONCLUSION
KLM’s actual 100th anniversary is not until 100 days from now, on October 9th. Maybe on that day they’ll actually have a video that celebrates KLM’s contributions to the aviation world over the last century?
Am I taking too cynical of a view on this?
@ Matthew — KLM is definitely not stupid. This signals that KLM expects declining profit margins from continued growth in demand. After all, European hubs (airports and cities themselves) are already operating at capacity. Does it make financial sense to keep expanding them? Further, I just recently noticed that France (and I presume other European countries) are actually restricting domestic flying. The only way to fly BOD (Bordeaux) to CDG (Paris) is via a third country. Obviously, this is to FORCE you to take the new higher-speed train. Kudos to France. This is the kind of stuff that drives anti-liberal Americans crazy…
Gene, I’d just say that there has never been BOD – CDG flights (for as long as I remember). Air France operates from BOD to ORY … most of the domestic HOP! service uses ORY.
As for your greater point, I don’t think KLM would have made this video if it did not view it as profitable. Furthermore, I think your general concerns on European aviation growth are correct. But I do see hypocrisy in this KLM ad.
@ Matthew — OK, I’m a moron on the CDG thing…I spent way too many hours looking at travel planning this past weekend, and I guess I restricted those searches to CDG (or business class or both). Mark me embarassed…
Ah, but Matthew, you’re not as old as some of us who read your excellent blog!
I remember Air Inter operating BOD-CDG using the Dassault Mercure among other things and also to ORY and LBG before CDG opened.
Air Inter was folded into Air France first as Air Inter Europe then Air France Europe and finally Air France.
Since the arrival of the TGV on SNCF domestic air travel in France is not worth the hassle unless you are connecting.
Here in the UK I’ve given up domestic air travel unless it’s LHR-ABZ or INV as that’s a bit too long by train. Similarly in Germany unless it’s something like TXL-MUC and I’m in a hurry I wouldn’t fly because DB and the ICE are excellent and more reliable than Lufthansa domestic services.
Speaking of Scotland, have you tried the Caledonian Sleeper? Thinking of trying it this fall with my wife and son.
Caledonian Sleeper – many years ago but as you may know there’s a huge upgrade to the rolling stock coming in September of this year so I will try it again next year – always IMO a better journey at the height of the summer when you cross Scotland from sunrise arriving in time for a good Scottish breakfast.
I prefer Inverness as the destination but there are other choices.
You are spot on. My thought is that there has been a lot of talk and even regulations locally in Europe about doing away with ultra short-haul flights in favor of trains. This makes sense as it would be like telling you not to fly between LGA and JFK or maybe PHL and EWR. However, an airline pandering to people who think flying is bad seems short-sighted. It’s worse than say McDonald’s telling you that they didn’t harm any cows in making a hamburger commercial to appeal to vegans.
You can fly between LGA and JFK?
The distances you talk of here are short. Using the above example Bordeaux to Paris is 370 miles, a similar distance as Boston to Baltimore (400 miles).
Bordeaux to Paris can be done in 2h25m by train vs 5h30m by car. You’d be almost stupid to fly this by the time you factor in check in, transfers etc.
The Boston to Baltimore trip is 6h25m by car (with good traffic) and 6h22m by train in the US. It’s no wonder people choose to fly routes such as DC-NYC, DC-BOS etc when even the “high speed” trains are so slow.
Similarly in the UK (I used to live there) flight routes such as London to Birmingham (about the same as NYC-Phil) and London to Manchester (the same as NYC-BOS) have been abandoned as trains are so much faster (1h20 and 2h10 respectively). The issue in the UK for longer trips such as London-Edinburgh is that trains are very expensive and flying can often be much cheaper.
Makes sense for Europe. Meanwhile in the U.S., Amtrak executives are asking “why not here?” “Oh yeah, because our system and trains are horrid!”
“Am I taking too cynical of a view on this?”
You’re reaction is definitely on the triggered side of things, yeah.
I don’t think this is any worse than other companies who “virtue signal”.
No, you’re not being too cynical. It’s all contrived and fake…false humility. They fully expect to profit off of it “from a new generation of travelers who give lip service to the environment.”
Yes, with stopover in NYC. There are helicopter flights bookable LGA-Manhattan and Manhattan-JFK. You would probably be faster taking the MTA though.
I do think its always worthwhile to have a healthy dose of skepticism whenever a large institution (be it private or public) launches a marketing/PR campaign. That said, I think that ESG (environmental, social and governance) factors are a legitimate thing with major corporations these days, especially in Europe. Corporate stakeholders, be they consumers, investors, regulators, the community are increasingly demanding responsible stewardship and I think that some companies are legitimately internalizing these views into real policies and actions, not just virtue signalling for branding/PR purposes. So, while this could be viewed cynically, it could also be genuine. No way to know unless an insider at KLM can tell.
Flight shaming has caught on with a vocal but minority in Europe who use bully tactics to get there way. The vast majority of Europeans don’t buy into this flight shaming nonsense but of course we trust those market research studies played like fools by eco extremists
“who use bully tactics to get there way”
What specific tactics are they using?
“The vast majority of Europeans don’t buy into this flight shaming nonsense”
Any statistics to back this up?
“of course we trust those market research studies played like fools by eco extremists”
Everyone who believes in climate change is an eco extremist?
It would be interesting for the US coal companies to try this. They could advocate for clean energy by showing the effects of coal power plants.
For those who care a lot about pollution, know that Carnival’s 47 cruise ships pollute more than the 260 million cars in Europe. (Not to mention all the fines Carnival has been assessed for illegal dumping of waste.) While airlines carry a mix of business and personal travelers, it’s safe to say that almost all cruise ship travel is for personal/pleasure purposes.
‘Carnival’s cruise ships pollute more than all of Europe’s cars: Study’ (Fast Company)
‘Carnival cruise ships produce more sulphur oxide than all Europe’s cars, analysis claims’ (euronews)
‘Carnival cruise ships more polluting than all of Europe’s cars’ (Financial Times)
‘Carnival Cruise Ship Fleet Pollutes Almost 10 Times More Than All Cars in Europe: Study’ (thedrive.com)