A Guided Tour by KLM through Schiphol: Hangar 14 and Schiphol Centre

777 Black & White

Written by: Tim van Waard
Pictures by: Esther van der Holst
You can request high-res pictures by contacting me.

There are days that you will not easily forget in your life. The 24th of september was such a day, because that was the day we (yours truly and my girlfriend Esther) were invited for a guided tour by the KLM. The KLM is one of the most famous airline companies in the world. KLM was founded on 7 October1919 making it the oldest carrier in the world still operating under its original name. At the time I’m writing this, KLM is almost 90 years old. KLM’s main hub is Schiphol, usually named Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Schiphol is one of the largest and most important airports in Europe (and the world).  We would first get a tour through Schiphol-Oost (in English: Schiphol-East) for a tour through Hangar 14, the biggest maintenance area at Schiphol. The second part of the tour took place inside Schiphol Centre, probably known well as every passenger departs or arrives there.

Sideview 777

Arrival at Schiphol Oost

Departing early as we had to make our way through the usual Dutch traffic jams, we just made it in time at 9.45 at the main gate to enter Schiphol East. This area has strict security measures, so at the gate we had to meet up with our guide, mister Van Aken. After a truly warm welcome and a little meeting with some of the KLM-staff, it was time for us to head to the first part of the tour: Hangar 14.  With our visitors badge firmly attached to our clothes, we were ready to explore the exceptionally big maintenance area.

Hangar 14

When you enter Hangar 14, you are immediatly impressed of the sheer size of this building. There are three “bays” in the hangar, each bay is used for maintenance of aircrafts. Both KLM aircrafts as well as aircrafts from other companies are being sent to these bays to get their check-up after a specific amount of “flight hours”. Maintance work goes on for 24 hours a day, both in daytime and nighttime. KLM is known for it’s excellent expertise regarding maintenance of aircrafts. The quality and speed of these check-ups is of a supreme level. We found ourselves impressed walking through the corridors heading for the three bays.

Cockpit 777

We could only take pictures of the KLM objects, as security measures are very strict nowadays in the aviation industry, for obvious reasons. While entering the middle bay we found an aircraft of the Saudi Arabian cargo arrier Midex. It was great to check the aircraft while the crew was working on the nose of this airplane. On average 100 people work on an airplane to get the things fixed, with every crewmember having an expertise.

In the next bay we found a Boeing 777 from KLM in the beautiful blue and white coating. A great sight and we were invited by our guide to enter the aircraft. He showed us the cockpit (which was heavily under maintenance) and the rest of the airplane. Also we found ourselves checking out the rooms where the cabin crew sleeps during a flight. Big respect to this crew to sleep in such tiny spaces and still be happy to serve your drinks with a smile .

Cabin Crew sleeping place

New livery

When we visited the third bay we saw the fantastic sight of an airplane being painted in a new livery. It’s amazing to see such a gigantic aircraft in a way, you never really see them. We could not take pictures ofcourse, due to the security. After some final walking around through the hangar we encountered a General Electric engine on the floor. KLM uses General Electric engines for all their aircrafts. This engine is huge and has an unimaginable amount of parts.

777 Engine close-up

Our guide

I really have to make a special mention for our guide, mr van Aken, in this blog. He works now more than 30 years for KLM, as a purser, but also in different other roles. His knowledge about aviation and especially KLM seemed to be endless. Not only did we hear loads of great little facts about KLM and Schiphol, but also he was willing to answer every question we asked him. Next to that we had some good conversation about the rising amount of agression of passengers that cabin crew have to handle correctly and about the stricter security levels since 9/11. KLM makes no concessions on security and safety is one of the most important things for KLM. The devotion to this security and life of the passengers is great to see for an outsider. The level of thoughtfullness in every aspect of aviation (environment, materials, laws) amazed us.

Inside the 777

Schiphol centre

We made our way to Schiphol centre and parked our car at a very cheap parking garage (3,5 hours parking, 16 euro’s, ouch) to get ready for the second part, the guide through Schiphol Centre. After meeting up again with our guide mr van Aken, he showed us the KLM Crown lounge. This is a brandnew lounge for World Business Class passengers or Premium Members. Here we were offered some nice sandwiches and some fresh juice. They also offer exclusive wines and champagne, but we decided to stay sober

Need we say more?

Walking through Schiphol

We then were guided through Schiphol, checking out some beautiful decorations on some walls. Decorations you usually walk by in a hurry. But when you take the time to wander around Schiphol, you just see so much more things you would not have noticed. We also made a quick visit to the KLM “unaccompanied minor service” area. Children under the age of 12 sometimes travel alone by plane. KLM supports these young kids and looks after them. They have a special area where the kids can play and have fun. KLM staff watches them and makes sure they are delivered on the flight safe and sound.  We also came across the annex of the Dutch Rijksmuseum, where highly acclaimed art can be viewed by visitors of Schiphol for free. Every few months, the paintings get substituted for new ones. It was fun to see that our guide, mr van Aken, was helping people along the way that came to him with questions about where to go. You’re a purser 24 hours a day

Schiphol wall decoration

The crew area at Schiphol

Then we entered the so called  “crew center”, where all the cabin crew and airline pilots gather to meet-up, relax and prepare for their flights. Blue uniforms everywhere ofcourse. We went into a briefing room, pretending to be cabin crew. We watched a fun DVD which explained the cultural do’s and don’ts while serving Japanese people. KLM has many DVD’s for cabin crew to understand the cultural differences between people from different country’s. We found it very entertaining and usefull. We now know that we should never point a finger at someone who is Japanese . After this, our guide mr van Aken had to leave us to do other work, but he by then invested more than 4 hours time in guiding us, which was truly remarkable!

Seat adjustment business class

After a long day we went home, amazed by everything we had seen and heard. We would like to thank mr van Aken, mr van Kanten and the other KLM staff we met that day. We could have written up ten times more about everything we learned that day, but this a good overview of the tour. It was a wonderfull experience!