Three-course dinners and free beers?! Here’s what KLM’s crew allowance looks like (for now)

Three beers a night keep the pilot alright 🍻

KLM staff working in the skies are getting stellar treatment: from comfy hotel rooms to sumptuous breakfasts, their daily allowance truly covers all kinds of benefits… for now.😶‍🌫️

If you’ve flown with KLM at least once, you might have wondered what it’s like to fly for them: here’s an overview of the flying staff’s current daily allowance. 👇

Sky-high standards

As RTL Nieuws reports, cabin and cockpit staff of the Dutch koninklijke (royal) airline are used to a royal daily allowance when travelling for work, comprising quality boarding and lodging. 👑

Food

Regarding food, KLM’s flying staff receive a variable daily allowance calculated to allow for three meals, four hot drinks, and, depending on the destination, up to three glasses of soft drinks and… beer. 🤯

A daily menu, therefore, might look like this:

  • Breakfast: fruit juice, two eggs with ham, bread, butter and tea or coffee
  • Lunch: simple dish and coffee
  • Dinner: soup, a main course, dessert and coffee
  • Drinks: soft drinks or biertjes 🍺

Accomodation

As for accommodation, KLM’s current collective labour agreement states that reflecting “the status of KLM and the pilots,” its flying staff should stay in hotels “reasonably situated in relation to the airport, shops and recreational facilities (…) in or near the city centre.”

READ MORE | 11 unique jobs that could only exist in the Netherlands

Other criteria that the accommodation should fulfil include:

  • A room of a minimum of 3×4 metres
  • Separate bathroom with toilet
  • Seating and writing facilities and adequate reading light
  • Air conditioning and heating
  • Provision against noise pollution

Transport and leisure

Depending on the destination, the daily KLM allowance also allows for some recreational activities, such as cinemas, swimming pools and sports facilities.

Natuurlijk, they also cover transport: if free transport is not available, staff are entitled to up to four bus or tram rides or half a taxi ride per day.

And sky-high costs

Sounds pretty neat, right? But before you run off to apply for a KLM cabin or cockpit job, you should know that these amazing perks might soon become a thing of the past.

KLM worker unions are currently negotiating a new collective labour agreement — and it looks like the company will make big cuts.

Some of the proposed changes include an end to complementary alcoholic drinks, the choice of hotels far from inhabited centres, and, most importantly, freezing off wages for the next two years. 🥶

What do you think of the current and future working conditions of KLM flying staff? Fly to the comments to share your opinion with us.

Feature Image:Depositphotos
Beatrice Scali 🇮🇹
Beatrice Scali 🇮🇹
Five years after spreading her wings away from her beloved Genova, Bia has just landed at DutchReview as an editorial intern. She has lived in China, Slovenia, Taiwan, and — natuurlijk — the Netherlands, where she just completed her bachelor’s in International Studies. When she’s not reciting unsolicited facts about the countries she’s lived in, she is writing them down. Her biggest dreams include lobbying the Dutch government into forcing oliebollen stands to operate year-round, and becoming a journalist. In this order.

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