Pandemic confirms value of strong hub to KLM CEO Pieter Elbers

At the start of the pandemic and through 2020 and much of 2021, industry observers predicted airlines without domestic markets — like Cathay Pacific Airways, Emirates, KLM, and Singapore Airlines — would struggle to regain their pre-pandemic markets, and that when travel demand returned, passengers would prefer to fly point-to-point. But KLM CEO Pieter Elbers, citing the airline’s recent successes, emphasized that the death knells were premature. The Covid-19 pandemic was “obviously” the great challenge of his 30 years at KLM and eight as CEO, Elbers told Airline Weekly in an expansive interview as he wraps up his tenure at the airline before taking the helm of IndiGo. “We were at almost a complete standstill as an airline for a couple of weeks in April 2020,” he said. “It was the greatest challenge in KLM’s 102-year history.” But it’s what KLM did in response to the crisis that Elbers credits with its success. “We kept our network largely in place,” he said. “There were certain specific city pairs where the only connection was through Amsterdam — for many city pairs we were the only airline, the only window to the world.” Some routes operated with a handful of passengers and the full hold of cargo. But aside from the cargo revenue, these flights served to keep KLM — and its Amsterdam hub — connected to is passengers, Elbers said. KLM has now restored between 80-90 percent of its pre-pandemic destinations, the most notable absences being cities in China and those affected by lengthier routes due to the closure of Russian airspace.<br/>