KLM Royal Dutch Airlines “takes a gamble” on Las Vegas (from June 2019)

KLM will operate flights between Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and Las Vegas on Fridays and Sundays from 6 June 2019. The Boeing 787-9 flights will offer 30 seats in World Business Class seats, 45 in Economy Comfort Class and 219 in Economy Class. A third weekly flight will be launched on Tuesdays from 2 July 2019.

The flight schedule will be as follows:

• KL0635 will depart from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol at 12:30 hours and arrive at 14:15 hours local time in Las Vegas at McCarran International.
• KL0636 will leave Las Vegas at 16:05 local time and arrive the next day at 11:05 in Amsterdam at Schiphol.

“Las Vegas will become KLM’s 18^th North Atlantic destination to be served directly. Including Las Vegas as KLM’s latest destination will offer our customers even more flight connections to and from the west coast of America,” KLM President & CEO Pieter Elbers said.

Destination Las Vegas

Las Vegas is a city in the southwest of the United States in the state of Nevada. It is located 380 kilometres east of Los Angeles and attracts millions of visitors every year. Las Vegas was officially named a city in 1911. The city is located in the middle of a desert and is the United States’ gambling and entertainment paradise, its luxurious hotels and innumerable casinos often forming the backdrop to Hollywood movies. Las Vegas also serves as a hub for several beautiful national parks, making it an ideal destination for nature lovers and hikers. And to top it all, the large number of conferences and conventions held here, make it an important destination for business travellers too. The new KLM flights will extend Air France-KLM’s transatlantic network and strengthen its joint venture portfolio with Delta Airlines.

Slot restrictions at Schiphol

In order to open Las Vegas as a new destination, changes had to be made to KLM’s network. Partly due to Schiphol’s slot restrictions, KLM was forced to revise its portfolio of destinations sooner than expected. With effect from 29 March 2019, KLM will therefore stop flying to Freetown in Sierra Leone and Monrovia in Liberia. While the Freetown/Monrovia route launched in 2017 would have previously been given more time to grow in terms of performance, KLM is now compelled to deploy its fleet and slots differently.

Passengers with a reservation for a flight after 29 March 2019 from Amsterdam to these African destinations and vice versa will either be rebooked or reimbursed. Air France will continue to operate its direct service to Freetown from Paris Charles de Gaulle.