KLM Royal Dutch Airlines began on October 7, 1919. It is the oldest airline still flying under its original name. Queen Wilhelmina granted the young company the title 'Koninklijke', which means royal. She did so before it had ever flown a single flight. Its first service, London to Amsterdam, took off in May 1920. The aircraft was a leased de Havilland DH.16.
In 1929 KLM opened the longest scheduled route in the world, from Amsterdam to Batavia, now Jakarta, in the Dutch East Indies. Fokker planes needed several days for the trip. In 1934 its DC-2 'Uiver' finished second in the MacRobertson air race from England to Australia. Founder-director Albert Plesman rebuilt the airline after World War II. In 1946 it became the first mainland European airline to serve New York.
In 1958 it flew over the North Pole to Tokyo via Anchorage. Its 1993 tie-up with Northwest Airlines was the first big transatlantic joint venture, a shared business across the ocean. It became the model for later alliances. The 2004 Air France merger left KLM its brand, its Dutch identity, and Schiphol. From that single base it flies an unusually large long-distance network. It celebrated one hundred years in 2019.