Dutch Government Has Approved Rescue Plan For KLM Airline

The Dutch government approved a 34 billion euro about 395 billion bailout plan for the airline KLM on Tuesday after pilots agreed to cut wages for five years

Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra had frozen on Saturday the unlocking of this aid in the form of credits destined for the Dutch company of the Air FranceKLM consortium given the refusal of the VNV pilots union to accept a salary reduction

But KLM announced that the pilots union had finally relented And the government declared that it is willing to approve the granting of this state aid

KLM had presented a spending reduction plan to the government last week which called for a reduction in salaries for pilots until March 2022 and for flight and ground personnel until early 2023

However Hoekstra rejected it insisting that the wage cut be applied throughout the governments fiveyear bailout plan And he gave KLM management and unions until Saturday to sign this agreement

The suspension of the rescue plan put in danger the future of the oldest airline in the world hard hit by the impact of the covid19 pandemic

KLM CEO Pieter Elbers said that an important stage has been passed with the signing of this commitment by eight unions KLMs savings plan plans to cut expenses by 15 and cut 5000 jobs
The president of the Dutch Airline Pilots Association VNV Willem Schmid underlined It is good that the way has been cleared to achieve the financial support that can guide KLM through the crisis and restore the necessary calm with the company

Some 3000 pilots will be particularly affected by this plan which will mean cuts of up to 20 in their salaries according to the Dutch press

The Air FranceKLM aviation group suffered a great impact due to the reduction of flights due to the pandemic On Friday the FrancoDutch company announced a net loss of more than USD 6979 million in the first nine months of the year when in the same period of 2019 it had earned USD 157 million