The world's oldest airline still flying under its original name isn't American, British, or German. It's Dutch. And it was declared "Royal" by a queen before it had a single airplane. In September 1919, Queen Wilhelmina granted the predicate *Koninklijke* — Royal — to a company that didn't yet exist. A month later, on October 7, eight Dutch businessmen made it real. **KLM** — Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij. Royal Aviation Company. It has never changed its name. Not through Nazi occupation. Not through nationalization. Not through a merger with Air France. 106 years. Same three letters. The man behind it was **Albert Plesman**, a young aviation lieutenant who had organized an air exhibition in Amsterdam that drew over half a million visitors. He became KLM's first administrator at 30. His obsession: connecting a country the size of Maryland to every corner of the Earth. By 1924, KLM was flying Amsterdam to Batavia — modern-day Jakarta — in a **Fokker F.VII**. A 55-day journey that became the longest scheduled route in the world. By 1946, it was the first European airline to offer scheduled transatlantic service to New York from the continent. Built on the floor of a former lake All of this from a nation so flat that its main airport, Schiphol, sits on the floor of a former lake — its name literally translates to "ship hole," a graveyard for vessels that sank there centuries ago. But the most Dutch detail of all? The **Delft Blue houses**. Since 1952, KLM has handed every Business Class passenger a miniature porcelain house modeled after a real Dutch building, filled with genever liquor. The tradition started because airline regulations capped passenger gifts at $0.75 — so KLM classified the house not as a gift, but as a free last drink. A new house is released every October 7. There are now over 100 in the collection. A royal legacy with a boarding pass An airline that began before it had planes, survived a war that destroyed its fleet, and still pours you a drink from a tiny ceramic house. That's not an airline. That's heritage at 35,000 feet.