KLM Says Only Two Aircraft Flying on New Year's Eve

Updated 1:44 PM ET December 9, 1999

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - All of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines fleet, except for two aircraft, will be grounded when the new millennium begins -- because not enough people want to fly.

Hugo Baas, KLM spokesman, told Reuters the main reason that 125 of KLM's aircraft, including freighters, will be parked at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport is due to a lack of business.

Only two aircraft, one flying from New York and one from Montreal will be in the air that night, he said.

"We decided to cancel most of the flights because there was no demand, although business between Christmas and New Year has increased by 50 percent."

But he added: "KLM is the first airline to acknowledge that everything may not be OK. We are not convinced that all areas of the transportation chain in the world are ready."

Baas declined to comment on which areas of the world KLM thought were not Y2K compliant.

On the night itself, around 250 extra people, armed with satellite communication and GSM phones will be monitoring developments around the clock, he said.

KLM would be keeping a close watch on what happens in New Zealand and Australia because they pass the dateline first and their systems are similar to those in the Netherlands.

"We are just being realistic," he said.

Baas added that there would not be a problem parking so many aircraft at Schiphol and there would also be plenty of room if aircraft from other airlines needed to be diverted.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), December 09, 1999

Answers

Link, we need a link on this one please.

-- the Virginian (1@1.com), December 09, 1999.

Aha. One flight for Jane Garvey, and another for Koskinen! Perfect scheduling. They're almost the only ones who will be planning on flying...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), December 09, 1999.