Dutch Flight School Starts Third 2026 Intake with 21 Cadets in September

Netherlands – KLM Flight Academy, the airline-owned ab-initio training school of KLM, has started Class 26-3 with 21 students in September 2026, marking its third new training class of the year.

• Class 26-3 follows Class 26-2, which comprised 21 students — two women and 19 men — and began in June 2026. Class 26-1 started on March 2, making the September group the academy's third intake of 2026.
• KLM Flight Academy states that it expects to train 80 students for KLM during 2026. The academy describes itself as KLM's preferred source of new pilots when the airline requires additional flight crew.
• Students begin with approximately nine months of theoretical instruction at Eelde before moving to around six months of single-engine flight training on the Diamond DA40. This is followed by multi-engine training using the Diamond DA42, including the CPL phase, before the final training stage at Schiphol.
• The complete training pathway takes approximately two years and leads to a frozen ATPL, CPL and associated SEP, MEP, ME-IR, Night Qualification, radio telephony, language proficiency and MCC credentials, together with a type rating.

About KLM Flight Academy
KLM Flight Academy is KLM's flight school based at Groningen Airport Eelde and provides integrated training for future commercial pilots. It was formed from the former Rijksluchtvaartschool, which moved to Eelde in 1954 and was acquired by KLM following privatization in 1991. The academy operates a fleet of 18 Diamond aircraft comprising 12 DA40 single-engine aircraft and six DA42 multi-engine aircraft.

Source: KLM Flight Academy