On 11 March 2026, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands brought a Boeing 737 in to land for the final time as a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL) guest pilot, closing a chapter that had unfolded, largely in anonymity, over nearly three decades of scheduled commercial operations. The King, who has held an Airline Transport Pilot Licence since 2001 and accumulated a portfolio of qualifications spanning private, commercial, military, and multi-engine jet categories, flew his last 737 service as KLM accelerates a €7 billion fleet renewal programme replacing its narrowbody Boeing aircraft with the Airbus A321neo.
The king is now set to undertake type-rating training on the A321neo, ensuring his role as a working co-pilot on commercial services continues uninterrupted. The departure from the Boeing 737 marks a broader structural transformation underway across KLM’s European network.
King Willem-Alexander’s Piloting Journey Spans Four Decades
The King’s aviation career did not begin with KLM. According to the official Royal House of the Netherlands website, Willem-Alexander obtained his Private Pilot’s Licence (Second Class) on 2 July 1985, with his Commercial Pilot’s Licence (with an Instrument Rating) following in 1987 — both secured before he had concluded his university studies. His theoretical B1/B2 licence followed while he was still a student, and in 1989 he obtained a supplementary licence to fly multi-engine jet aircraft.
His Military Pilot’s Licence was presented to him by his grandfather, Prince Bernhard — himself a decorated wartime aviator — in 1994, a detail that situates the King within a lineage of Dutch royal engagement with aviation. The Airline Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL), the highest category of pilot certification available under civil aviation regulations, was earned in 2001.
Speaking during a state banquet in Kenya in March 2025, the King offered a telling aside: he recalled that the only pilot’s licence he ever held in his early years was not Dutch but Kenyan — licence number Y2294-PL, issued to him by a civil aviation official named Gladys in 1989 from an office he described with precise, fond detail.
That Kenyan licence was earned during his volunteer flying work with the African Medical Research and Education Foundation (AMREF) Flying Doctors, the legendary aeromedical organisation operating out of Wilson Airport in Nairobi, where he flew alongside the celebrated Dr Anne Spoerry before subsequently serving as a pilot for the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) in Meru National Park — his duties there including anti-poaching surveillance.
The KLM Co-Pilot Role: Three Flights A Month, One Alias, Zero Fanfare
The full extent of King Willem-Alexander’s role as a working KLM co-pilot only became publicly known in May 2017, when he disclosed to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf that he had flown as a guest pilot on KLM Cityhopper services for 21 years — twice monthly, in rotation with the airline’s regular crew.
Prior to that, it was known that he held pilot qualifications and had occasionally flown government aircraft, but the regularity and commercial nature of his Cityhopper service was not widely appreciated. The BBC reported at the time that the continuation of his cockpit duties after his accession to the throne in 2013 had been particularly unreported.
The King flew under the alias “Meneer van Buren” — a traditional Dutch royal family pseudonym — blending into the KLM crew in standard uniform. Passengers rarely identified him by his voice during cockpit announcements, and he never revealed his identity. The King himself acknowledged as much with characteristic understatement when he told De Telegraaf in 2017: “Even if someone recognizes my voice, the majority of people do not listen anyway.” His motivation for continuing, he explained in a piece published in The Associated Press, was unambiguous:
“You have an aircraft, passengers and crew. You have responsibility for them. You can’t take your problems from the ground into the skies. You can completely disengage and concentrate on something else.”
From mid-2017 onwards, having retrained on the Boeing 737 following the withdrawal of the Fokker 70 from KLM Cityhopper’s fleet, he averaged approximately three commercial flights per month. Over that nine-year period, he flew a cross-section of passengers that reads as a social document of European short-haul travel: football supporters bound for Europa League matches in Prague, families on package trips to Lapland for Christmas, and holidaymakers heading to Ibiza and Malaga.
According to the Royal House website, his role aboard the government aircraft — registration PH-GOV, a Boeing 737 Business Jet delivered in 2019 — has also continued in parallel, with the King serving as co-pilot on official state journeys, including a trip to Prague in 2025 and a flight to Curaçao in March 2026.
The Final Boeing 737 Flight: March 11, 2026, And What the King Said About It
The King’s final scheduled flight as a KLM Boeing 737 guest pilot took place on 11 March 2026, a date confirmed by the Royal House of the Netherlands. He announced the milestone on the Royal House’s Instagram account, in which he reflected on the aircraft and the passengers it had carried. As reported by The Royal News Organisation, the King stated: “Over the years, we have transported so many passengers from A to B on the 737. This mix of people and moments made flying special.”
The Government Information Service (RVD) confirmed the 11 March date to the Dutch press agency ANP, as reported by AviationNews.eu. The same source noted that the King is expected to complete his conversion training to the Airbus A321neo by the end of 2026. Once certified on the A321neo, he will cease flying the government Boeing 737-700 (PH-GOV) as co-pilot, with his flying hours thereafter accumulated exclusively through KLM commercial operations on the Airbus type.
The analysis (by aviation publication Simple Flying) of the March transition observed that the King’s farewell to the 737 was, in an important sense, also KLM’s farewell to an era — the monarch having now lived through two successive fleet transitions at the airline that have each required him to retrain: from the Fokker 70 in 2017 to the Boeing 737, and from the Boeing 737 in 2026 to the A321neo.
KLM’s Fleet Renewal Programme
The King’s type-rating transition is directly precipitated by a comprehensive €7 billion fleet renewal programme that KLM has been prosecuting across all segments of its operation, and which has already begun materially altering the composition of the airline’s European narrowbody fleet.
KLM selected the Airbus A320neo family in 2021 as the replacement for its Boeing 737NG fleet on European routes. The airline received its first A321neo in August 2024, entering the type into service from mid-September on short-haul routes out of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. By February 2026, 12 A321neos were active in the KLM fleet. The first Boeing 737-800 was retired from KLM’s fleet in December 2025, with a second following in January 2026, both directed to Twente Airport for dismantling and component recovery.
According to KLM’s own press release on the first A321neo delivery, the aircraft is approximately 21 percent more fuel-efficient per passenger tonne kilometre than the Boeing 737 it replaces, and reduces its noise footprint by roughly half. It also carries more passengers per rotation on busy routes — a capacity advantage that is particularly relevant given the operational constraints at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, which has faced sustained pressure to reduce flight movements and noise exposure on surrounding communities.
The Air France-KLM group has allocated 33 A321neos to KLM and 15 to Transavia, of which 14 had been delivered as of early 2026. Nine A320neos will join KLM from 2028.
The fleet renewal is not confined to the narrowbody segment. According to Simple Flying, KLM Cityhopper is replacing its older Embraer 190s with the larger and quieter Embraer E195-E2. For long-haul operations, KLM is adding Boeing 787-10s and will introduce the Airbus A350-900, replacing ageing Boeing 777-200ERs and Airbus A330s. The cargo division has ordered three Airbus A350Fs to succeed the Boeing 747-400 freighters.
Here’s a look at the carrier’s fleet:
| Aircraft Type | In Service | Parked | Current Total | Future Orders | Average Age |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus A321 | 15 | — | 15 | 6 | 0.9 Years |
| Airbus A330 | 10 | 1 | 11 | — | 17.2 Years |
| Boeing 737 | 38 | 1 | 39 | — | 18.6 Years |
| Boeing 777 | 30 | 1 | 31 | — | 16.7 Years |
| Boeing 787 Dreamliner | 28 | — | 28 | — | 6.6 Years |
| Total Fleet | 121 | 3 | 124 | 12 | 13.1 Years |
Data: planespotters.net
How King Willem-Alexander Compares With Other Royal And Head-Of-State Pilots
Willem-Alexander is far from the only head of state or senior royal to have held active pilot qualifications, but the sustained commercial regularity of his flying distinguishes him from most of his peers.
CNN reported in 2017 that Britain’s then-Prince Charles was a qualified pilot, while Princes William and Harry had served as military helicopter pilots — William flying search-and-rescue missions and Harry flying Apache attack helicopters in Afghanistan. The Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, has also reportedly occupied cockpits on state flights.
What sets the Dutch King apart is the sustained, low-profile nature of his commercial participation. Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh, logged nearly 6,000 flying hours across more than 60 aircraft types, including the Concorde — a remarkable tally — but he did not maintain an active role on scheduled commercial services throughout his adult life in the manner that Willem-Alexander has.
King Willem-Alexander’s incognito participation in commercial aviation, sustained across more than three decades and maintained even after his accession to the throne, is, in that specific respect, without close parallel among contemporary heads of state.
The Dutch Royal House’s own published record confirms that in July 2025 the King formally marked 40 years as a licensed pilot — a milestone that prompted the Royal House to publish photographs and note that he “continued his flying education and obtained, among other things, the major military certificate in 1994 and his ‘ATPL’ in 2001 for civil aviation.” That same month, he flew as co-pilot on the government aircraft to Prague for a state visit to the Czech Republic.
What Happens To The Government Aircraft, And What The A321neo Transition Means In Practice
One consequential detail arising from the transition concerns the Dutch government aircraft, PH-GOV. According to AviationNews.eu, once the King completes his A321neo conversion, his role as co-pilot on PH-GOV on selected state journeys will therefore conclude when his Boeing type rating lapses following conversion to Airbus certification.
His anticipated completion of A321neo training by the end of 2026 means that, for a transitional period, the King will hold neither a current Boeing 737 type rating nor a certified Airbus qualification. The Royal House confirmed that training on the A321neo is already underway.
All in All
The relationship between King Willem-Alexander and KLM spans four aircraft types — the Fokker 70, the Boeing 737-700/800, the government Boeing 737 Business Jet, and, imminently, the Airbus A321neo — and more than three decades of active flying.
It has survived his transition from prince to king, two fleet changes at KLM, the global disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the sustained public and media attention that followed the 2017 De Telegraaf disclosure.
The Royal House’s official flying page, updated as recently as March 2026, states with characteristic matter-of-factness that the King “will undergo training to qualify to fly this new type of aircraft” — a sentence that, stripped of its context, could describe any commercial co-pilot’s routine career development.