NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 28 – KLM Royal Dutch Airlines 4th Boeing 777-300ER named Amboseli National Park was due to touch down at Nairobi\’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Friday evening on its first commercial flight.
Expected to receive the 425-seater aircraft at 7pm were Kenya Wildlife Service and KLM Royal Dutch Airline staff led by KLM Regional Manager for Eastern Africa Yeshwant Pawar and KWS Director Julius Kipng\’etich.
This latest addition to the KLM fleet signals a double \’first\’, for this is the first aircraft to leave the Boeing plant using environmentally friendlier paint and the first to be named after a national park in Africa. The Amboseli National Park aircraft is not painted in the well-know KLM blue, but in the silver with dark blue accents of the SkyTeam Alliance.
The naming is meant to make people realise that responsible flying and enjoying the beauty of our earth can be combined. As a further emphasis of its commitment to conservation, KLM will support Kenya Wildlife Service resource mobilisation for the Endowment fund with a donation of $5,000.
Following on from its active partnership with the Worldwide Fund for Nature in The Netherlands, KLM has named its four Boeing 777-300ER aircraft after renowned national parks, to make its care for nature tangible.
When KLM first began operating, in the early 1920s, flying was mainly "looking down and enjoying nature". Today, KLM wants to actively team up with nature once more. The PH-BVA has been named after Kenya\’s "Amboseli National Park," in honour of the parks biodiversity conservation efforts.
"The arrival of the Boeing 777-300ER fits in with KLM\’s policy to lead the market in innovation and climate and environmental care," said KLM President & CEO Peter Hartman in Seattle where the aircraft was manufactured.
"It will boost customer appreciation, efficiency and flexibility in network control, lower unit costs, and improve operational performance. Our continuous investment in renewing and expanding our intercontinental, European and regional fleets is the best illustration of the faith we have in KLM\’s future."
KLM is the only airline in the world that baptizes aircrafts with none-coded names and have been using national parks since March 2008.
In KLM\’s two-class configuration, the Boeing 777-300ER will seat 425 passengers. Its non-stop flight range at maximum pay-load is 8,800 kilometres (5,530 nautical miles).
Within its range, the Boeing 777-300ER is the most efficient and climate and environmentally friendly aircraft. In KLM\’s configuration, the aircraft has been equipped to offer e-enabled services to support operational management and communication in the air and on the ground, and to expand the range of e-services for customers at a later stage.
The Boeing 777-300ER is the most fuel efficient in its class and the most climate and environment-friendly, delivering a fuel savings of up to 25 per cent compared to the previous generation. The aircraft flying tonight has been named after Amboseli National Park as further emphasis of KLM\’s interest in nature and in recognition of the parks biodiversity conservation efforts.
Kenya is one of KLM\’s core markets and naming the aircraft after Amboseli National Park in the homeland of our partner and Sky Team member Kenya Airways is a further emphasis of both KLM\’s interest and commitment in this regard and in ensuring that profitable growth goes hand in hand with environmental quality.
Amboseli National Park which was branded "Kilimanjaro\’s Royal Court" is a jewel in the crown of Kenya\’s world-famous national parks. The 390-km sq park has fantastic views of Kilimanjaro and is surrounded by six communally owned ranches. It lies 250 km south of Nairobi in Loitokitok District.
