KLM

KLM, legally Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. (Royal Dutch Airlines), is the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands. KLM is headquartered in Amstelveen, with its hub at nearby Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. It is part of the Air France–KLM group, and is a member of the SkyTeam airline alliance. KLM was founded in 1919; it is the oldest airline in the world still operating under its original name and had 32,505 employees as of 2013.

KLM operates scheduled passenger and cargo services to approximately 130 destinations. Passenger aircraft are configured in a three-class layout, including business class, Economy Comfort, and economy class. KLM has a reputation as one of the world's safest airlines. Its frequent-flyer program is called Flying Blue, and has codeshare agreements with other airlines—both members and non-members of SkyTeam.

History

Formation and early years

In 1919, a young aviator lieutenant named Albert Plesman sponsored the ELTA aviation exhibition in Amsterdam. The exhibition was a great success; after it closed several Dutch commercial interests intended to establish a Dutch airline, which Plesman was nominated to head. In September 1919, Queen Wilhelmina awarded the yet-to-be-founded KLM its "Royal" ("Koninklijke") predicate. On 7 October 1919, eight Dutch businessmen, including Frits Fentener van Vlissingen, founded KLM—the abbreviation of Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij ("Royal Dutch Airlines") as one of the first commercial airline companies. Plesman became its first administrator and director.

Royal Dutch Shell

Royal Dutch Shell plc (LSE: RDSA, RDSB), commonly known as Shell, is an Anglo–Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in the Netherlands and incorporated in the United Kingdom. Created by the merger of Royal Dutch Petroleum and UK-based Shell Transport & Trading, it is the fourth largest company in the world as of 2014, in terms of revenue, and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors".

Shell is also one of the world's most valuable companies. As of January 2013 the largest shareholder is Capital Research Global Investors with 9.85% ahead of BlackRock in second with 6.89%. Shell topped the 2013 Fortune Global 500 list of the world's largest companies. Royal Dutch Shell revenue was equal to 84% of the Netherlands' $555.8 billion GDP at the time.As of February 2016, Shell is the world's second largest oil company.

Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading. It has minor renewable energy activities in the form of biofuels and wind. It has operations in over 90 countries, produces around 3.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and has 44,000 service stations worldwide.Shell Oil Company, its subsidiary in the United States, is one of its largest businesses.

Cargo

The word cargo refers in particular to goods or produce being conveyed – generally for commercial gain – by ship, boat, or aircraft, although the term is now often extended to cover all types of freight, including that carried by train, van, truck, or intermodal container. The term cargo is also used in case of goods in the cold-chain, because the perishable inventory is always in transit towards a final end-use, even when it is held in cold storage or other similar climate-controlled facility.

Multi-modal container units, designed as reusable carriers to facilitate unit load handling of the goods contained, are also referred to as cargo, specially by shipping lines and logistics operators. Similarly, aircraft ULD boxes are also documented as cargo, with associated packing list of the items contained within. When empty containers are shipped each unit is documented as a cargo and when goods are stored within, the contents are termed as containerised cargo.

Transportation types

Marine

Seaport terminals handle a wide range of maritime cargo.

Kalitta Air

Kalitta Air is an American cargo airline headquartered in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan. It operates international scheduled and ad-hoc cargo charter services. Its main base is Willow Run Airport near Ypsilanti.

History

In 1967 Conrad "Connie" Kalitta began a business carrying car parts using a twin engine Cessna 310 that he piloted. It became American International Airways. AIA started flying in 1984 using Boeing 747, Lockheed L-1011, Douglas DC-8, Twin Beech and Learjet aircraft, for air freight, air ambulance and charter passenger operations.

During the late 1980s, the Kalitta brand name continued to appear on many of the company's cargo aircraft. In 1990 and 1991, AIA flew 600 missions in support of Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

In 1997, AIA merged with Kitty Hawk Inc. and Conrad Kalitta resigned to start Kalitta Leasing for buying, selling and leasing large aircraft. In April 2000 Kitty Hawk International (the former AIA) ceased operations. Kalitta decided to rescue it and the new airline, Kalitta Air, began operations in November 2000, using the operating certificate and assets of the former airline.

Boeing 747

The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial jet airliner and cargo aircraft, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. Its distinctive "hump" upper deck along the forward part of the aircraft makes it among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and it was the first wide-body produced. Manufactured by Boeing's Commercial Airplane unit in the United States, the original version of the 747 had two and a half times greater capacity than the Boeing 707, one of the common large commercial aircraft of the 1960s. First flown commercially in 1970, the 747 held the passenger capacity record for 37 years.

The four-engine 747 uses a double deck configuration for part of its length. It is available in passenger, freighter and other versions. Boeing designed the 747's hump-like upper deck to serve as a first class lounge or extra seating, and to allow the aircraft to be easily converted to a cargo carrier by removing seats and installing a front cargo door. Boeing did so because the company expected supersonic airliners (development of which was announced in the early 1960s) to render the 747 and other subsonic airliners obsolete, while the demand for subsonic cargo aircraft would be robust well into the future. The 747 was expected to become obsolete after 400 were sold, but it exceeded critics' expectations with production passing the 1,000 mark in 1993. By January 2016, 1,520 aircraft had been built, with 19 of the 747-8 variants remaining on order.