KLM will start flying between MSP and Amsterdam again

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will offer flights between Minneapolis-St. Paul and Amsterdam next spring and summer, airport officials announced Thursday, putting it in both competition and cooperation with its global partner Delta Air Lines.

KLM said it will fly the route three times a week — on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays — from late March through October. The first flight will be March 27.

Delta, the dominant carrier at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, flies to Amsterdam daily year-round. It operates three flights between the cities from April to November and two a day during winter.

KLM and Delta are partners in the SkyTeam carrier alliance, which facilitates code-sharing and some crossover of frequent-flier status programs. Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam is KLM's hub, the third-biggest connecting airport in Europe, and the airline flies to 135 cities nonstop from it.

"New service means more choices for travelers on both sides of the Atlantic and opportunities to bring more visitors and related commerce to Minnesota," Brian Ryks, chief executive of the Metropolitan Airports Commission, said in a statement.

But KLM's interest is more than the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport and market. KLM wants to have in Minnesota what Delta enjoys in Amsterdam: a strong network of connecting flights to other U.S. cities through its partnership with Delta.

"This new destination not only provides travelers to Minneapolis with more options, KLM's code-sharing agreement with Delta Air Lines also means that KLM can offer its customers connections to more than 60 North American destinations," KLM President and CEO Pieter Elbers said in a statement. "This further emphasizes the strength of the North Atlantic joint venture between Air France, KLM, Alitalia, and Delta Air Lines."

KLM first started service between MSP and Amsterdam in April 1991, but it ended the route in September 2001, shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. that led to a long travel slowdown.

In 1998, KLM formed a joint venture with Minnesota-based Northwest Airlines through which the two airlines coordinated flight schedules and fares on transatlantic flights. That venture was expanded to include Delta in 2008 and Delta in 2009 acquired Northwest.

KLM's new flights next spring will depart Amsterdam at 9:35 a.m. Central European time and arrive in Minneapolis at 11:20 a.m. local time. The flight back will leave MSP at 2:50 p.m. local time and arrive in Amsterdam the next day at 5:50 a.m. Central European time.

Delta now offers daily flights that leave Minneapolis-St. Paul at 3:13 p.m., 7:38 p.m. and 9:50 p.m. All three arrive in Amsterdam the next morning or early afternoon in European time.

The KLM flight is the latest in a series of incremental expansions of international service at MSP. Condor airlines, for instance, recently added a fourth day to the three-day-a-week flights between MSP and Frankfurt. Icelandair recently made year-round what had been a seasonal daily flight between MSP and ­Reykjavik.

Kristen Leigh Painter • 612-673-4767