Founded in 1919, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is the oldest scheduled airline in the world. It operates worldwide from its European homebase with a network of routes covering 164 cities in 75 countries. The group's core businesses are passenger and cargo transportation, and engineering and maintenance. In the fiscal year 1997/98 KLM employed an average workforce of 26,923 and carried 14.7 million passengers and 620,919 tonnes of cargo.
Strategic positioning KLM's focus on its core business and core competencies steadily proceeds to maintain and create shareholder value. In August 1998, KLM bought back all common shares held by the State of the Netherlands; a transaction which completed the privatization of the company. KLM CFO Rob Abrahamsen said of this transaction: "In a time period of 18 months, KLM has returned approximately Fls2 billion ($1 billion) to its shareholders while reducing the number of outstanding common shares and participation certificates by a third. As evidenced once again by this transaction, the creation of shareholder value remains a top priority for KLM."
The KLM Group continues to strengthen itself through expansion of its reach via global and regional alliances, and through participation in the fast-growing leisure segment via its charter airline subsidiaries.