KLM Royal Dutch Airlines: The World's Oldest Airline
As near as I can tell, the oldest active airline in existence in the world is based in Holland. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, founded in 1919, still flies and I can find no airline still in existence that began before 1919.
On 12 January 1919 began the Paris Peace Conference, which culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919. This effectively ended World War I. During World War I great advances had been made in aviation as the airplane was seen as a useful and effective tool of war. On 7 October 1919 KLM Royal Dutch Airlines was founded for the Netherlands and Colonies by a group of investors and bankers led by 30-year old Albert Plesman. Queen Wilhelmina granted the epithet "Royal" to KLM. The airline would be based in Heerengracht, The Hague. For you aviation historians, the airline was founded almost 16 years after the Wright Brothers got their ideas of flying off the ground and 6 years after the St. Petersburg experiment in Florida.
In case you are wondering, the letters "KLM" do stand for something. "KLM" is an acronym for Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij voor Nederland en Koloniën. In English, that's "Royal Aviation Society for the Netherlands and Colonies."
The first flight commenced on 17 May 1920. Pilot Jerry Shaw flew a De Havilland DH-16 from Amsterdam to London. It appears that scheduled service was not consistent year-round. The KLM web site reports in its timeline that service was resumed in March 1921 after a "winter delay." When the delay began is not discussed.
Though commercial aviation was just beginning, the aircraft used were not new. The De Havillands were leased from the British company Air Transport and Travel (AT&T). They were themselves bombers used in World War I and were surplus goods with the cessation of war. However, KLM would soon use Dutch-built Fokker planes such as the four-seater Fokker F.2 and the five-passenger Fokker F.3 for its flights. While it is a far cry from the 200+ capacity of KLM's current Boeing 747s, it did multiply the number of passengers flown on a flight when you consider the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line craft carried one passenger (two if they were small).
By September of 1920 KLM expanded to Copenhagen in Denmark and Hamburg in Germany. KLM also expanded its routes with cooperative agreements with other airlines, such as the German company Deutscher Aero Lloyd to provide services to Hamburg.
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