KLM Announces Suborbital Flight Relationship With Space Experience Curacao

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has announced to the Netherlands press that they were embarking upon a new relationship with Space Experience Curacao (SXC).

KLM will be supporting future suborbital flights through purchases, inclusion in their frequent flyer program, inclusion in future KLM vacation packages to Curacao, and other yet-to-be-named support.

The flights will be made on the XCOR Lynx suborbital spacecraft.

Last month SXC and XCOR Aerospace jointly announced the intent of SXC to lease a production version of the Lynx suborbital spacecraft, pending United States government approvals to station the vehicle on the island of Curacao in the Netherlands Antilles.

With a planned start date in January 2014 SXC and now KLM will market and sell flights. XCOR will provide operational support for the vehicle at Space Port Curacao.

On the front page of De Telegraaf, the largest circulation Dutch newspaper, KLM Chief Executive Officer Peter Hartman said of the new relationship and suborbital spaceflight: "It is a fantastic project that totally fits the pioneering spirit of KLM."

This history includes operating the longest regularly scheduled air service in the world throughout the 1920s, and opening their first transatlantic service in 1934 between Amsterdam and Curacao.

SXC Founder and former Royal Netherlands Air Force Chief of Staff Ben Droste referred to the exploration and entrepreneurial spirit the Dutch have demonstrated for over five centuries and noted their logical extension to space.

"This is a project that completely fits our VOC tradition (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, aka the Dutch East India Company). The Dutch have successfully traversed the world's seas, pioneered long distance air travel, and now have set our sights on space."

KLM BioFuels: First Passenger Flight

A Boeing 747, one of four engines powered by a 50-percent biokerosene mix, circled the Netherlands for an hour on Monday for what airline KLM called the world's first passenger flight using biofuel.

"This is technically feasible. We have demonstrated that it is possible," KLM chief executive officer Peter Hartman said after the flight, which took off and landed at Schiphol airport near Amsterdam.

"Government, industry and society at large must now join forces to ensure that we quickly gain access to a continuous supply of biofuel."

The flight had about 40 people on board, including Hartman, Economic Affairs Minister Maria van der Hoeven, the director of nature group WWF in the Netherlands, Johan van de Gronden, and a handful of journalists.

KLM spokeswoman Monique Matze told AFP that of the Boeing's four engines, one was powered by a mix of 50 percent sustainable kerosene and 50 percent normal fuel. The biofuel was manufactured from the camelina plant, sourced from a biotechnology company based in Seattle in the United States.

The test flight was also the first of any kind in Europe powered partly by sustainable biofuel, according to KLM.

"Of course, we compensated the footprint of transporting the fuel from the United States to here," added Matze, citing ongoing projects to reduce CO2 emissions.

KLM said its quest for biokerosene was conditional on forests, food and water sources not being jeopardised.

Matze said the company "dare not name any targets" for switching to biofuel for its commercial flights, saying "the difficulty now is the availability of biofuels."

Monday's flight, she said, was "the first step towards ensuring clean and sustainable air transport."

An un-named passenger said 'At least the biofuel isn't based on the Netherland's most common byproduct, milk or cheese!'