Finland’s flag carrier, Finnair, turns 100 today.
If you’re flying, keep an eye out for special celebratory events.
In the meantime, here are some short videos celebrating the airline’s history and a fun Moomin character livery makeover.
airline history
Treasure trove of TWA toy planes in Kansas City, MO
A favorite find from our visit to Kansas City, MO a while back is the National Museum of Toys and Miniatures.
The museum boasts both the world’s largest collection of fine-scale miniatures and one of the largest collections of historic toys on public display.
If you had a favorite toy when you were a kid, it is likely on display at the museum.
There are many aviation-themed toys in the collection, but we’d love to jet on over now to see a new exhibit in the museum’s Hall of Collections.
On display are more than two dozen Trans World Airlines (TWA) toy airplanes from the collection of retired TWA pilot Cooper Weeks.
Here’s some of the TWA history shared on the sign by the exhibit:
The collection ..”harkens back to the heyday of the airline, one known as the Airline of the Stars. Initially formed in 1930, TWA became one of four major domestic airlines after World War II. The airline was headquartered in Kanas City, MO and in 1962 opened a hub for international flights at Idlewild (later known as John F. Kennedy) Airport in New York. TWAS was acquired by American Airlines in 2001.”
Qantas has a fun new safety video
Qantas Airways is celebrating its 100th anniversary with some classic throwback action.
First up is this new in-flight safety video featuring ‘80s mullets, ‘70s moustaches, 1940s flying boats and 1920s propeller aircraft.
The safety video briefing features modern-day Qantas crew members in carefully recreated historical settings onboard aircraft and in airport terminals.
Qantas has also put together an exhibition showcasing the past, present and future of the airline, with artifacts, life-sized replicas and interactive installations.
The exhibition will be touring Australia for the next year, but here are a couple of highlights that seem pretty cool.
This is a replica of a Qantas 747 First Class Lounge from the 1970s.
And this is one of the scrapbooks that belonged to Qantas co-founder Fergus McMaster.
Miniature houses have big role in KLM history
Well-known airlines such as Pan Am, TWA, US Airways and Virgin America are long gone. And in just the past two years more than two dozen other airlines went from soaring to shuttered.
So, it is noteworthy that KLM Royal Dutch Airlines turned 100 on October 7.
The Dutch flag carrier is not only one of the world’s oldest airlines, it is also the oldest airline still flying under its original name.
It’s also the only airline where the guest of honor at its annual birthday party is the newest version of the three-inch tall porcelain house gifted to business class passengers flying on the carrier’s intercontinental routes.
The history of the houses
Back in 1952, KLM began giving its first-class passengers a gift of a miniature Delft Blue pottery house portraying a historically or architecturally significant Dutch building.
Because there were rules and limits regarding the value of gifts to passengers, the airline filled the houses with gin so that they were technically not gifts but free cocktails that just happened to be served in souvenir containers.
New editions of the souvenir houses were created on and off for many years until 1994 – KLM’s 75th Anniversary – when the airline commissioned a bonus catch-up batch of miniature houses so that the number of souvenir houses in the series lined up with airline’s age.
Now one of the airline industry’s most sought-after complimentary inflight amenity, a new miniature Delft Blue porcelain houses filled with Bols Genever, a popular Dutch gin, is unveiled at the carrier’s birthday party each October 7. The new house is cycled into the assortment of miniature houses business class passengers can choose from on each flight.
A handy app helps passengers and collectors track the KLM houses they have, or still need. Swapping is popular and there’s a robust secondhand market in Amsterdam shops and online, with prices ranging from about $15 for the common houses to upwards of $550 for some of the rarer editions.
Over the years, KLM’s miniature houses have depicted everything from the home of Dutch exotic dancer and spy Mata Hari to the Anne Frank House and the Rembrandt House.
In 2014, KLM’s miniature house portrayed the Heineken Brewery in Amsterdam.
Rotterdam’s Hotel New York, in the former headquarters of the Holland America line, was the featured house in 2016. And the home in Haarlem where Dutch aviation pioneer and aircraft manufacturer Anthony Fokker once lived was honored with a miniature gin-filled house in 2017.
KLM’s 100th anniversary house
KLM’s much-anticipated 100th Delftware miniature building was revealed at the carrier’s 100th birthday party, held in a hangar at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on October 7.
The event was attended by more the 3500 people, some of whom had flown in just to be among the first to get their hands on the newest miniature house.
The 100th house is a replica of Huis ten Bosch Palace in The Hague, the current home of the Netherland’s King Willem-Alexander and his family.
The palace was built in the mid-17th century for Prince Frederik Hendrik of Orange and his wife Amalia van Solms and was chosen to be KLM’s 100th miniature house to honor the strong ties between the Dutch Royal Family and KLM since the airline’s early days.
The future of the KLM houses
While KLM’s Delftware miniatures are highly collectible and closely tied to the carrier’s branding, KLM is also committed to making aviation more sustainable.
To that end, the carrier uses electric baggage towing tractors, purchases carbon offsets, operates many flights using a biofuel mix and works to reduce waste and weight on flights.
But ditching the miniature porcelain houses to lighten loads has not been considered.
“There are things you should do and things which you shouldn’t do. Period,” said KLM’s President and CEO Pieter Elbers, “For sustainability, we are investing in lightweight containers, trolleys, cargo nets, bottles, glasses and many other things to reduce weight on our planes,” said Elbers, “But those houses, we won’t touch.”
(My story about KLM’s 100th Delft miniature house first appeared on CNBC.)
KLM turns 100 on Oct 7
KLM, Royal Dutch Airways, turns 100 on October 7 and celebrations marking the milestone event are already underway.
A great exhibit drawing from KLM’s extensive collection of more the 250,000 images has been on view at the Amsterdam City Archives.
And on October 7, a hoopla event will take place in a KLM hangar at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. During that party, the much-awaited ‘reveal’ of the 100th tiny Delft house filled with Bols Genever (a Dutch gin) will take place.
The small houses are a given out as complimentary gifts to travelers flying World Business Class and there’s always a wave of excitement in the cabin when the cart with the houses start being rolled down the aisle.
Stuck at the Airport will on hand for this year’s big reveal and we’ll share details on that as soon as we’re able.
Stuck at The Airport was honored to be on site for the reveal of KLM’s 97th miniature Delft House, which was made in the likeness of the Hotel New York in Rotterdam.
The hotel is on the site of the former headquarters of the Holland American Line and for many years, beginning in 1872, the company’s ships sailed between Rotterdam and New York and several other U.S. cities.
Stuck at the Airport was also onsite for the reveal of KLM’s miniature Delft house #98 – which depicts the family home of aviation pioneer Antony Fokker.
In advance of its birthday, KLM has been busy with events, promotions and announcements celebrating the company’s past – and looking to the future.
Take a look at these two short videos, especially the “Fly Responsibly” video that actually encourages travelers not to fly.
Hawaiian Airlines: why all the gum?
On Monday, journalists gathered at Hawaiian Airlines’ Honolulu headquarters for the carrier’s first global media day and the announcement that the airline is adding lie-flat seats to the premium cabins on its fleet of A330 aircraft.
During the event, refreshments were laid out for the attendees. And in with the coffee, water, fruit and trail mix were boxes filled with packs of Doublemint gum.
The gum seemed like an odd offering until it was explained that last November, when Hawaiian Airlines was celebrating the 85th anniversary of interisland passenger service, Doublemint gum was part of the festivities.
The reason: back in 1929, the first inflight amenity offered to passengers was a stick of Wrigley’s gum to help relieve ear pressure.
Hawaiian Airlines revived that tradition during its anniversary day celebration on November 11, 2015 by once again handing out Wrigley’s Doublemint gum to passengers (along with some other goodies) to the more than 12,000 passengers taking neighbor island flights that day.
But not all the gum Wrigley’s sent to Hawaiian Airlines for the celebration was used.
Not by a longshot. Which is why Doublemint gum is now there on the refreshment table at a lot of Hawaiian Airlines events.
Lufthansa “then & now” photo exhibit at Munich Airport
Lufthansa has put together an exhibition of ‘then and now’ photos bundled under the title “Service is our tradition” and on view in Terminal 2 at Munich Airport until the end of August.
The images show the development of Lufthansa from 1955 to today and show historical images of the cabin, the cockpit and aircraft juxtaposed with similarly posed scenes from today.
Here are few samples:
Not going to Munich Airport anytime soon? You can see all the photos from the exhibition here.
Flight Attendant Celebration Day at SFO Airport
United Air Lines stewardess uniform 1957–1958, courtesy SFO Museum
If you happen to be at San Francisco International Airport on August 20th, 2013, make your way over to the library at the Louis Turpen Aviation Museum in the International Terminal for Flight Attendant Celebration Day.
The event will run from 10 am until 3 pm and celebrate the history of flight attendants with talks, short subject films and commemorations, along with complimentary refreshments and free validated parking.
Here’s a link to the scheduled events of the day.
Even if you can’t be on hand for Flight Attendant Celebration Day on August 20th, be sure to stop by the museum to see the current exhibition United We Stand: Female Flight Attendant Uniforms of United Airlines, which will be there through the end of September 2013.
Greetings from Hong Kong International Airport
I was one of the lucky invited media guests on the August 28, 2012 Cathay Pacific delivery flight of a new Boeing 777-300ER from the Boeing factory to Hong Kong International Airport. (Here’s a link to a secret about the airplane that airline chief executive John Slosar pointed out during the trip.)
The 12 hour flight started off with a fun event that included a chance for many guests (not me, though) to get their pictures taken with one of the engines on the plane.
This group of specially chosen crew members was as excited as the invited guests to be on the delivery flight of Cathay Pacific’s newest Boeing 777-300ER plane going from the Boeing factory to Hong Kong on Tuesday, August 28, 2012.
I’ve got two days to spend in Hong Kong before heading home. Geeky, I know, but I spent one of those days touring the public side of Hong Kong International Airport and visiting Cathay City, the Cathay Pacific headquarters located near the airport.
My tour guide at Cathay City was Agnes Yeung, who was kind enough to take me through the small, on-site Cathay Pacific History Museum, which can be visited by school groups and other invited guests but is, unfortunately, not open to the general public.
The Cathay Pacific Museum at Cathy City includes a display documenting the changes in the airline’s flight attendant uniforms
The Cathay Pacific museum entrance is set up to look like the former Hong Kong airport, known as Kai Tak, which was located right in the city and was replace with a new airport in 1998.
I didn’t get a chance to visit the Headland Hotel, a 501 room property right near the airport reserved exclusively for airline crew members and other Cathay Pacific personnel. Yeung said the hotel is usually booked at “more than 100% capacity,” and I thought for a moment there was a breakdown in translation. But she explained that because crew members are arriving from and leaving for flights at all hours of the day and night, and because many crew members are only there to rest for a short time, the hotel can indeed be operated at more than 100% capacity.
Next up: some of the amenities at Hong Kong International Airport, including a visit to the “Dream Come True” center, where kids test out what it’s like to work as a pilot, a flight attendant, a surgeon, a police officer and several other jobs; the real story of that much-talked about IMAX movie theater at the airport; and a look at some of the other activities available at Hong Kong International Airport.