BANGKOK, 16 July 2019 (NNT) – A farewell ceremony has been held for the legendary Boeing 747-400 aircraft named “City of Bangkok” of KLM Airlines, the Dutch national airline. In 1989, Thai monks performed its naming ceremony in the Netherlands. The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) today received its name plate at the farewell ceremony and celebrated the 90th anniversary of the Bangkok-Amsterdam flight route.
Mr. Thaweesak Lertpraphan, Deputy Governor of Bangkok, attended the ceremony celebrating the 90th anniversary of the air route from Bangkok to Amsterdam and the Boeing 747-400 decommissioning ceremony. He received the “City of Bangkok” name plate from a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines executive. The ceremony was also attended by Mr. Keis Reid, the Netherlands Ambassador to Thailand, Wing Commander Sutheerawat Suwannawat, Director of Suvarnabhumi Airport, and others involved at Suvarnabhumi Airport, Lat Krabang district.
The Deputy Governor of Bangkok said in 1991, KLM organized a naming ceremony for the Boeing 747-400 aircraft, which was a new model, in Amsterdam. Therefore, a similar ceremony was held to return the name plate of the aircraft “City of Bangkok” to Thailand this year. It demonstrates the strong ties between Thailand and the Netherlands. Over the past 29 years, over six million passengers were carried by the aircraft with more than 130,000 hours of flights before it was decommissioned in November 2018.
The aircraft’s “City of Bangkok” name plate will be preserved at the museum of Bangkok City Hall to provide historical evidence of the warm relationship between Thailand and the Netherlands.
