Employers
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines said Thursday, Nov. 5, that the number of positions at the airline will shrink by almost another 15% as it hands more work to outside partners, transfers some units to parent Air France-KLM and seeks higher productivity from the staff that remain.
The Amstelveen, Netherlands-based carrier said approximately 5,000 positions have been or will be reorganized, with the work carried out differently. Most of that is a change in who employs the people doing the work, not a straight elimination of jobs. The airline said the planned productivity improvements would result in approximately 1,000 fewer positions at KLM.
The announcement came the same morning KLM Group reported third-quarter results and is part of a push to raise annual earnings by €1 billion, bringing the total improvement the company is seeking to €1.4 billion. KLM said it has already achieved structural improvements of more than €750 million.
Where the positions go
KLM’s release itemized the changes:
Since this spring, the work associated with 1,250 positions at KLM Catering Services has been carried out in partnership with gategroup, a catering company.
An estimated 800 positions in Ground Services involve work that will be transferred to external providers. Outside partners will take over below-the-wing work for KLM Cityhopper, the regional subsidiary, and baggage handling in Schiphol Airport’s East Hall, and Apron Services for European flights and Baggage Services will work with external partners.
About 2,000 positions, including 1,500 at the customer contact center Cygnific, will be transferred to Air France-KLM, the parent group. Those roles move within the group rather than to an outside company.
The remaining reduction, about 1,000 positions, comes from productivity measures. KLM said it expects to limit the impact on employees through natural attrition, voluntary arrangements and transfers to other positions. The release did not give a figure for compulsory redundancies or a timetable for each step.
Other changes
At Passenger Services, KLM said digital tools will give travelers more control over check-in, boarding and rebooking, with terminal staff focusing on hospitality and direct customer service. KLM Cargo will consolidate all cargo handling in its own Schiphol warehouse and plans to handle increased volumes “without hiring additional employees” through simpler processes, automation and staff working across different activities. Engineering & Maintenance will speed the phaseout of work on aircraft types being retired, as the Boeing 737 and Embraer E190 leave the fleet over the coming years and smaller Embraer E195-E2 jets replace planned Airbus A320s.
KLM also said employment terms “need to become simpler and more competitive.” It wants to negotiate new collective labor agreements with unions and is targeting a structural productivity increase of at least 8% by 2028, “combined with very moderate wage growth.”
“It’s painful to transfer activities that have traditionally been part of our company,” President and CEO Marjan Rintel said in the release. She said the airline would proceed through “open dialogue with employee representatives, unions, partners, and other stakeholders,” and added that “further changes to the organization, employment conditions, productivity, and staffing may still be necessary.”
Financial backdrop
KLM Group reported a third-quarter operating profit of €458 million, up €106 million from €352 million a year earlier, and said nine-month revenue rose more than 9% to €10.9 billion. CFO Bas Brouns said that even in its traditionally strongest quarter, the profit margin “remains too low” and must rise to more than 8%. In the restructuring release, he said the company needs “to strengthen our financial foundation to make KLM more resilient in the face of uncertainty.”
Why it matters
The plan affects employees in the Netherlands, not U.S. workers, and KLM did not say any U.S. roles are involved. It is a large example of an employer reducing its own headcount mainly by moving work to suppliers and a parent company rather than through direct layoffs. For the affected employees, an outsourced or transferred position can mean a new employer and potentially different terms, which is why KLM’s itemized figures should not be added together and read as job losses. Unions’ responses were not part of the company’s release.
Sources
- KLM, “KLM takes action to strengthen its position and keep the Netherlands connected to the world,” November 5, 2026. https://news.klm.com/klm-takes-action-to-strengthen-its-position-and-keep-the-netherlands-connected-to-the-world/
- KLM, “KLM Group Third-Quarter Results,” November 5, 2026. https://news.klm.com/klm-group-third-quarter-results/
Featured photo: A KLM Cityhopper Embraer E195-E2, registration PH-NXB, at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Nov. 24, 2022. Photo: Robbie Klinkenberg, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Cropped from the original.
