KLM celebrates 40 years of work with "leading" Newcastle International Airport
KLMRoyal Dutch Airlines is celebrating a landmark 40 years of partnership with Newcastle Airport this week.
The airline has played a pivotal role in connecting the North East to the world and has been a key driver for investment and growth in the region.
Starting in October 1984,KLMoperated one flight every weekday between Newcastle and Amsterdam.
Today, the airline operates up to five daily flights to the Netherlands’ capital from the North East.
Since 2021, over 7,000 jobs have been created in the region thanks to foreign direct investment and last year, the North East welcomed 69 million visitors which contributed £6.1 billion to the region’s economy.
“We have an ambition to double the size of the visitor economy in the North East of England over the next ten years” explains Sarah Green, Chief Executive of the NewcastleGateshead Initiative.
“The way of doing that is by bringing more international travellers” she adds. “We know international travellers spend four times more than domestic travellers. It’s a really important part of our economy to really drive that international relationship and KLM have been such great international partners with Newcastle International Airport.
Jerome Salemi, KLM’s General Manager for UK & Ireland added: “It’s a feeling of happiness to be here. It’s an important airport and an important area for us.
“We have a great collaboration with the airport. We are involved in a lot of topics, we are supporting all the investment the airport is doing and we can compare with other airports in the UK and the rest of the the world and Newcastle Airport is leading in a lot of domains.”
A £20m investment was made towards the airport’s terminal to improve customer experience earlier this year.
This winter will see another £20m of investment as well a complete relaying of the runway, a project which has been nearly two years in the making.
Salemi continues: “We clearly identify Newcastle as one of the best we work with. When we see that the airport is investing massively in order to ease the check in process, boarding process and security, that speaks a lot for us and we are proud to see that [in Newcastle].”
Alice Andreasen, Chief Sustainability and Communications Officer at Newcastle Airport added: “They are an absolute joy to work with.
“KLM’s impact in the region is quite significant. The airport brings nearly £2m to the regional economy. They are really innovative and we’ve been working with them on a number of different things and obviously we have a key sustainability agenda. We’re looking at the trajectory ahead and what the next 40 years will bring us.”
The celebration of the partnership comes just two week after Newcastle International was crowned the best in the world at the World Routes Conference in Bahrain.
It is the first time a UK airport has won the 'Overall Winner' award.