View Full Version : KLM Air Asia
viking767
10th Sep 2013, 20:44
I saw a KLM Air Asia B777 a couple of weeks ago in GIG.
Is this a separate company from KLM, or what is the significance of the different logo?
Yellow Pen
10th Sep 2013, 20:55
Probably use them to fly between Hong Kong and Taipei. As the Chinese don't like people flying from Hong Kong to Taiwan the 'Air Asia' part is window dressing to suggest some separation between KLM and the KLM Air Asia. In practice they are the same airline. BA used to operate the route as British Asia Airways.
Ye Olde Pilot
10th Sep 2013, 21:26
I would rather fly SLF with Air Asia than a KLM derivative with all the old Dutch cabin crew who can't be bothered.
Just a notch better than the Eastern cabin crew who like the airline were past their sell by date.
andrasz
10th Sep 2013, 21:27
LH used to fly the route with a 744 in Condor livery for a while for the same reasons.
Yellow Pen is spot on.
It is KLM Asia and not KLM Air Asia. The livery does not feature the crown or any Dutch national symbols.
jackieofalltrades
12th Sep 2013, 17:51
The KLM Asia livery isn't used exclusively for Asian destinations. I've been on them trans-Atlantic too.
The SSK
13th Sep 2013, 08:41
Not just KLM and LH
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/BRITISH_ASIA_AIRWAYS_B747-436_%28G-BNLZ27091964%29.jpg/800px-BRITISH_ASIA_AIRWAYS_B747-436_%28G-BNLZ27091964%29.jpg
Peter47
14th Sep 2013, 11:44
To amplify Yellow Pen's point I believe that mainland China wouldn't allow airlines of certain countries to serve both it and Taiwan. Hence the need to set up a separate airline to serve TPE, although its planes could go just about anywhere outside China and were doubtless operated by the staff of the parent airline. Apart from British Asia Airlines, Japan Airlines had a Japan Asia Airlines subsidiary and there may have been others. Mandarin airlines was set up as a partially owned subsidiary of China Airlines of Taiwan which did not carry the national flag making it more acceptable to the PRC (more details on wikipedia). For some reason the restriction never applied to American carriers.
Sultan Ismail
18th Sep 2013, 15:28
In the 1990's QANTAS used a Boeing 747SP in a similar Taiwan role and it also carried the QANTAS Asia logo. As it was not used every day in that role I got to fly many times in it on the Brisbane/Singapore route, QF51/52 as I recollect