Video: KLM Chief Realistic About Post-Pandemic Long-Haul Travel

On November 8, the first day that the U.S. reopened to vaccinated foreign travelers, KLM's aircraft across the North Atlantic were 97 percent full, a remarkable statistic in the best of times but even more striking now, during a global pandemic, when planes plying international routes are on average about 60 percent full.

"This is a testimonial and a proof of the willingness of people to travel," KLM CEO Pieter Elbers said at the Skift Aviation Forum on Wednesday. "It's a demonstration of people wanting to get back in the air."

The North Atlantic was the most important market for KLM before the pandemic,. The airline lacks a domestic market, as the Netherlands is too geographically small to sustain a large internal airline industry, so KLM makes its money by connecting passengers through its hub in Amsterdam. "It is the backbone of ou