KLM cabin crew and the Dutch contract: the CAO, the Schiphol commute, the long haul network and what non Dutch speakers need to know

Amsterdam, Dutch, and the KLM recruitment thread covers the language requirement and the contract briefly. This is the fuller version: what the KLM CAO gives you, what the Schiphol base is like to live around, and the honest answer for non Dutch speakers.

The CAO

The KLM cabin crew collective agreement, negotiated by the VNC (the cabin crew union) and the other unions, public, enforced. Pay scales by grade and years, allowances, duty and rest rules, the pension, part time options that are widely used, and a seniority system for the bidding. It is a legacy European contract of the strong kind, and the crew who have flown elsewhere describe the protection as the reason they came back.

The grades

Cabin attendant, then purser, then senior purser, with the long haul fleets and the European fleet having their own bidding. New joiners start on the European network on the 737s and the Embraers (KLM Cityhopper is a separate company with its own contract, which the other thread explains) and bid onto the long haul as seniority allows.

Long haul

The 777s, 787s and A350s to the whole world: North America, Asia, Africa (KLM's Africa network is one of the largest from Europe), the Caribbean and Latin America. The layovers are long, the crew rest is good, and the Africa flying is something the crew talk about with a particular affection.

Living around Schiphol

Amsterdam is expensive. The crew live in Haarlem, Hoofddorp, Leiden, Almere and the smaller towns on the train lines, and the Dutch train and bike system makes the commute genuinely easy. A 5am sign on from Haarlem is a 25 minute train. Crew who move from cities where the commute is a car and a car park find this the best thing about the base.

Non Dutch speakers

The honest answer: KLM recruits Dutch speakers. The operation runs in Dutch and English, the announcements are in both, the crew room is Dutch. Non Dutch speakers are hired for specific language needs (Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese for Brazil) and work in English on the aircraft, but the general recruitment expects Dutch. If you are a Belgian Flemish speaker, you are fine. If you are an English speaker who has lived in the Netherlands and has B1 Dutch, it is a conversation. If you have no Dutch, look at the language route or at the other carriers.

Part time

The thing that makes KLM careers long. A large share of the cabin crew work part time percentages under the CAO, especially parents, and the airline is built to accommodate it. Crew fly for 20 years at 60 percent and raise families. Nowhere else I know does this at this scale.

For applicants

Learn Dutch if you do not have it. Expect the European network first. Live on a train line. And understand that KLM is a long career airline: the CAO, the part time culture and the pension are built for people who stay, and the people who stay are the ones who get the Africa long haul and the Tuesday off for the school play.