AMSTELVEEN, June 11, 2002 å- Effective August 15, 2002, KLM will commence round-trip services to the Nigerian capital, Abuja. These services will be operated twice weekly on Thursdays and Sundays from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AAS) using Boeing 767-300ER equipment. Flight KL581 departs from Amsterdam at 14:00 hours and arrives at 21:20 hours in Abuja, after a stopover in Kano. Flight KL581 will then depart at 22:40 hours from Abuja and fly nonstop to Amsterdam, where it will arrive at 06:20 hours the following morning.

In addition to Lagos and Kano, Abuja is KLM’s third destination in Nigeria. As a consequence of the new flight schedule, all three weekly round-trip services between Amsterdam and Abidjan in the Ivory Coast will be operated nonstop on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays effective August 15. Flight KL583 departs from Amsterdam at 15:00 hours and arrives in Abidjan at 19:55 hours. The planned departure time for return flight KL584 from Abidjan is 21:40 hours. It will arrive in Amsterdam the following morning at 06:40 hours.

“Inclusion of Abuja in the KLM route network represents additional reinforcement of KLM’s position in Africa in general and in Nigeria in particular,” says KLM Area Manager Africa Ron Schipper. “The fact that we have now added a third Nigerian destination to our route network indicates how important ties with Nigeria are for us. For Nigerians and visitors to Nigeria, we will continue to live up to our reputation as a global carrier offering a reliable product, excellent service and a worldwide network. We will also continue to live up to expectations together with Schiphol in its role as Europe’s best transfer hub. We hope and expect to be able to sufficiently convince the Nigerian market to make the combined Kano/Abuja service to Amsterdam and the rest of the world a resounding success. We are extremely grateful to the Nigerian government for this opportunity.”

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