Air France-KLM to Rename Group After SAS Joins

A New Name, A New Era

Senior managers at KLM and across the wider group have reportedly been informed that the Air France-KLM name will disappear once the SAS acquisition is finalized. What's striking is that the replacement name won't include either Air France or KLM. The group appears to be taking a page from International Airlines Group — the parent company behind British Airways and Iberia — which operates under a neutral holding name rather than favoring any single brand. Insiders suggest that within Paris circles, "the Blue Group" has been floated as a working title, though nothing official has been confirmed. A spokesperson acknowledged that a name change discussion is entirely reasonable given the group's expansion plans, noting that the current name only reflects two founding brands.

Expansion Plans and Internal Tensions

The SAS takeover, where Air France-KLM aims to acquire a majority stake, is expected to receive approval in the second half of this year. Beyond SAS, the group has also placed a bid for TAP Portugal, though it faces stiff competition from Germany's Lufthansa. The ambitions are clear — build a broader, multinational aviation holding that goes well beyond its French and Dutch roots.

Not everyone is comfortable with the direction things are heading. The name-change plan has drawn mixed reactions at the senior management level, with some describing it as a significant and weighty decision. Air France and KLM merged back in early 2004, and even then, the founding CEO Jean-Cyril Spinetta had floated alternative names like "French European Airlines." The conversation, it seems, has never fully gone away.

Beneath the branding question lies a deeper structural shift. The Paris holding is gradually centralizing control, with KLM's Adriaan den Heijer joining as chief commercial officer and Oltion Carkaxhija as chief operational officer on the executive board. KLM has also lost oversight of AirTrade — its tour operator subsidiary handling KLM Holidays and Transavia packages — which has been transferred to the Paris holding. AirTrade director Jeroen Martron described it as a logical move, adding that the transition signals the strategic value of their operations within the larger group.