KLM has partners all over the world - thanks in part to Roland

At KLM, you can book flights to over 600 destinations worldwide. But we operate a small portion of these ourselves - for a majority, we rely on our partners, such as Delta Airlines, Copa Airlines, WestJet, IndiGo and Garuda Indonesia. For these collaborations, clear agreements and a good relationship with these airlines are indispensable. This is why Vice President Alliances & Joint Ventures Roland and his team work hard every day to achieve this.

Global career

I've worked at KLM for over 20 years,' Roland begins. 'In 2002, I started as a management trainee. When that was completed, I fulfilled various commercial roles within Cargo. During that work, I came into contact with customers from various continents. That suited me, I noticed: ever since my studies, I have studied and worked in an international world. My next step was no surprise: commercial director of Passenger services in Budapest. There, I was responsible for marketing, sales and pricing for passenger flights to and from Central and Eastern Europe. In that role, it was the first time I really worked together with other airlines, including Delta. I also met them a lot in my next job: commercial director for Air France-KLM in Montreal.'

My last foreign adventure was in Singapore, as general manager for the Southeast Asia and Oceania region. I've never learned so much in such a short time. I’d just arrived when the corona pandemic broke out and suddenly all planes were grounded. As a result, no parking spaces could be found at Singapore Changi Airport, while cargo flights were in need to transport life-saving supplies, such as medicines and mouth caps. In the end, I helped solved that problem together with some diplomats from the Dutch and French embassies; in the meantime, it was also my responsibility to keep all airport and office staff safe. A very exciting and educational experience!'

A bit of KLM, and a bit of a partner

Since the summer of 2023, Roland has been living and working in the Netherlands again, as he was given the opportunity to become VP Alliances & Joint Ventures. 'Together with my team, and with our colleagues at Air France, I now ensure that we strategically maintain and expand our partnerships. Important, because thanks to them we can offer our passengers over 600 destinations, while we ourselves only fly to about 165 of them.'

'Together with the Network Department, we look at which destinations we add to our network, and when we can't fly them ourselves, we look for other airlines that already fly the routes. We negotiate how we can collaborate, there are various options, such as interline, codeshare or joint venture, and how we can organise it in such a way that bothparties benefit. That kind of discussion takes place regularly at a high level and is great fun to take part in!'

When it comes to sustainability, KLM also works closely with the other 18 airlines in the SkyTeam alliance. A good example is the annual Sustainable Flight Challenge. "We're all looking for ways to fly more sustainably. Some are experimenting with lighter loads, others with more sustainable fuel.

To discover together what works - and to look behind the scenes - we've agreed that every year we will carry out a certain flight as sustainably as possible. My team and I don't decide which ideas we test, but because sustainability is so high on the joint agenda it means we all have a lot to do with it.'

Small, close-knit and international team

After years abroad, Roland enjoys being back home. 'Although all those other places also felt like home, my family and I had a good time everywhere we went. And I don't have to miss being abroad, I travel very regularly for my work, usually to visit colleagues in Paris, but for example I also recently travelled to China with CEO and president of KLM Marjan Rintel for talks with our most important partners. And my direct team at the Amstelveen office may be small, our colleagues at Air France are team members too. That’s one of the advantages of working at KLM, whatever you do, chances are that your focus area is bigger than just our little country'.