KLM - KLM Media App

KLM - KLM Media App

KLM has launched a new KLM Media App for iOS and Android which lets passengers access a broad range of international newspapers on their smartphone or tablet to download 24 hours prior to departure.

Initially, KLM is offering a choice of thirteen newspapers: Le Monde, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Die Welt, El Pais, De Telegraaf, China News Weekly, International New York Times, Financial Times, China Times, Financieele Dagblad, Volkskrant and Trouw; as well as KLM’s own inflight magazine, Holland Herald. The airline will add more papers and magazines in future.KLM tiered the publications travellers can access in keeping with their travel class and Flying Blue level.

Offering passengers access to exclusive digital media is not entirely new. SAS has offered passengers a wide range of digitial publications through the SAS Newstand in the SAS app since the Summer of 2014.

But there is a trend towards digital news offerings developing in the industry. The Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) recently reported during the APEX EXPO on the slow transition away from the distribution of paper-based news on aircraft. A survey of APEX members’ inflight media offerings conducted by PressReader, a digital platform featuring more than 5,000 publications, found that 70 percent of respondents had either stopped offering print media on board or planned to do so within the next five years.

The main benefit is weight savings. Boeing equates removing the weight of print newspapers with “an annual savings of over $4.5 million for a fleet of wide-body aircraft operating 1,000 flights per day,” APEX reports. But this trend is not absolute. A separate study by Dawson Media Direct found that premium passengers— including Millennials—still have a strong preference for print.