The Dutch flag carrier KLM has started to use pilots from Air France to operate its flights between Amsterdam and New York JFK as part of a unique collaboration which is rarely seen in the airline industry.
Work on the project has been ongoing for several months, and on Thursday, the first flight with Air France pilots in the cockpit of a KLM Boeing 777-200 departed Amsterdam Schiphol Airport as flight KL-641.
Air France pilots are expected to operate one daily flight between Amsterdam and New York JFK for the next four months through to the end of the airline’s busy summer schedule, which finishes on October 25.
The two carriers are part of the Air France-KLM Group, but while you might expect this type of cooperation to be pretty easy to arrange, the two airlines operate as completely separate entities with different work rules and standard operating procedures.
To get Air France flight crew in the pilots’ seats of KLM aircraft has taken months of detailed work, not least with the pilots’ unions of both airlines, as well as aviation regulators who would have the final say on whether the two airlines can share their pilots.
Unions will be particularly concerned that the collaboration could open up the possibility of one day using ‘cheaper’ pilots from another country, although KLM chief operating officer Maarten Stienen was keen to point out that this unique arrangement was filling a short-term pilot shortage.
While Air France has more than enough pilots to operate its planned schedule, the Dutch side of the business is struggling, putting its schedule at risk of cuts if a solution could not be found.
In recent months, KLM was accused of ‘poaching’ military aviators from the Dutch air force with the promise of higher wages and better working conditions.
In order to address these accusations, earlier this month, KLM promised to make at least five pilot slots available to fly F-35 fighter jets for the air force as reservists.
