KLM picked up 278 stranded Ukrainian vacationers in the Dominican Republic who could not get back and flew them to Amsterdam for free.
On Friday 4 March evening, an empty KLM Airbus 330-300 registered PH-AKB flew from Port of Spain on the Caribbean island of Trinidad & Tobago to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic on flight number KL9865, after repairs.
Initially the aircraft would return directly to Amsterdam but KLM then decided to help this group of Ukrainian tourists by flying them back to Europe for free and by assisting them further to get home.
The plane landed in Amsterdam Schiphol on Saturday at 12:20 on flight KL9866. Most of the Ukrainian passengers will continue their travel to Poland in the coming days.
It is estimated that some 3,000 tourists from Ukraine and 15,000 Russians are still stuck in the Dominican Republic.
