KLM Axes Amsterdam Flights, Yet Airlines Still Offer Money-losing Fares to the West Coast

It was an exciting day for Connecticut’s Bradley Airport when Northwest and KLM announced they’d begin non-stop service to Amsterdam from the small airport in July 2007.

A few of my traveling friends last month traveled to Venice via Amsterdam on the KLM flight and said it was one of the best they’d ever experienced–and that the plane was full!

More than 58,000 passsengers have taken this convenient route from Connecticut to Europ since then but sadly the carriers are discontinuing the flights as of Oct 1 of this year.

It doesn’t seem to make sense. I mean, the profit for airlines is in long-haul routes, ones in which you can charge passengers a significant sum for the flight. The money-losers are the $280 cross-country flights that airlines still offer. The other night on CNBC, a commentator was saying that he’d rather pay the actual cost, instead of having so many cost cuttings and routes trimmed back that are a result of stupid pricing by airlines.

So KLM/Northwest axe a potentially profitable route to Europe, yet still offer silly prices from NY to LA. Another blow to our local airport: Delta has decided to stop their direct flight to LA, the airport’s only nonstop to the west coast.