New greener aircraft for KLM

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines’ first Boeing 737 with winglets arrived at Schiphol Airport on Saturday, March 17, 2007. The Boeing 737-800 PH-BXV was delivered to KLM at the Boeing plant in Seattle on Friday, March 16. Winglets are vertical wingtips that improve the aerodynamics of an aircraft, reducing fuel consumption and related CO2 emissions.

These winglets will be a standard feature on all new Next Generation Boeing 737 aircraft delivered to KLM. In addition, KLM’s existing fleet of 14 Boeing 737-800s and five 737-900s will be equipped with winglets before the spring of 2008.

Although the winglets increase the standard weight of an aircraft, increasing fuel consumption, this is more than compensated by their aerodynamic benefits. Once they are installed on KLM’s entire Boeing 737 New Generation fleet they are expected to reduce fuel consumption by around 3%.