KLM to fetch evacuees in Larnaca

AMSTELVEEN, July 20, 2006 – KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will, at the request of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, deploy a Boeing 747-400 to fetch Dutch and other foreign nationals stranded on the island of Cyprus after their evacuation out of Beirut, Lebanon.

Among the evacuees are dozens of Dutch nationals, more than 200 Belgians, and an unknown number of French nationals. The Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs will coordinate passenger handling in Cyprus.

The evacuation flight, KL 7601, will depart empty from Amsterdam at 15:30 hrs this afternoon, and is expected to arrive in Larnaca at 19:30 hrs. To ensure smooth operations in Larnaca, a general coordinator, two gate agents and a ground engineer will accompany the 15-strong flight crew.

The passenger-handling process in Larnaca will take around three hours to complete. The return flight, KL 7602, is expected to touch down in Amsterdam tonight at 02:30 hrs.

Contact Information

Hugo Baas

KLM Media Relations

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines

Contact via E-mail