KLM Cityhopper

History

The airline was established on 1 April 1991; it started operations the same year. It was formed from the merger of NLM CityHopper and NetherLines. Following the 1991 merger, KLM Cityhopper had Europe's largest fleet composition of Fokker-built aircraft: the Fokker 50, 70 and 100.

In 1998, KLM acquired AirUK, which was rebranded to KLM UK.

In November 2002, KLM merged its regional subsidiaries under the KLM Cityhopper name. It had 910 employees as of March 2007.

In 2008, the airline announced its fleet renewal programme, starting with an order of up to 17 Embraer 190 aircraft to replace its ageing and inefficient Fokker 50 aircraft and older Fokker 100 jets. Five Fokker 70 jets would also transfer over from Air France subsidiary Régional. Deliveries of the Embraer E-Jet aircraft began in 2009, and by March 2010, KLM Cityhopper had operated its last Fokker 50 flight. The carrier began to phase out its older Fokker 100 jets. Further Embraer jet orders came in 2012 and allowed KLM Cityhopper to remove the last five remaining Fokker 100 aircraft from its operation.

In October 2012, KLM reportedly presented a plan to its unions that foresaw splitting the airline into two separate units. According to a report by Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad, KLM was considering splitting off its European operations that would operate with a lower cost base than today and include its subsidiary KLM Cityhopper. This would effectively mean an intercontinental operation to include only the wide-body fleet of KLM and a European fleet operating the short to medium-haul routes as a separate entity, including the current KLM Boeing 737 fleet and the entire KLM Cityhopper fleet.