KLM’s highly prized miniature houses loom large in the 100-year-old airline’s history

More than 3,500 people gathered in early October at a hangar at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport to celebrate the 100th birthday of KLM Nobility Dutch Airlines.

It was a notable achievement. Well-known airlines such as Pan Am, TWA, US Airways and Virgin America are long gone. And in justifiable the past two years, more than two dozen other airlines went from soaring to shuttered.

The Dutch ensign carrier is not only one of the world’s oldest airlines, it is the oldest airline still flying under its original name.

As in years recent, the guest of honor at its annual birthday bash is the newest version in the collection of three-inch tall porcelain houses skilled to business class passengers flying on the carrier’s intercontinental routes. Anticipating a truly special addition, some of those squiring the party on Oct. 7 had flown in just for the occasion.

Back in 1952, KLM began giving its first-class commuters a gift of a miniature Delft Blue pottery house portraying a historically or architecturally significant Dutch building. Because there were rules and limits nevertheless the value of gifts to passengers, the airline filled the houses with gin so that they were technically not gifts but furlough cocktails that just happened to be served in souvenir containers.

New editions of the souvenir houses were created on and off for sundry years, until 1994 – KLM’s 75^th anniversary – when the airline commissioned a bonus catch-up batch of miniature houses so that the digit of souvenir houses in the series lined up with airline’s age.

The houses are now one of the airline industry’s most sought-after complimentary inflight amenities. A new bantam house, filled with Bols Genever, a popular Dutch gin, is unveiled each year at the carrier’s birthday interest, and then cycled into the assortment of miniature houses business class passengers can choose from on each retreat.

A handy app helps passengers and collectors track the KLM houses they have, or still need. Swapping is popular and there’s a sturdy secondhand market in Amsterdam shops and online, with prices ranging from about $15 for the common domiciles to upwards of $550 for some of the rarer editions.

Over the years, KLM’s miniature houses have depicted everything from the home of Dutch exotic dancer and spy Mata Hari, to the Anne On the level House and the Rembrandt House. In 2014, KLM’s miniature house portrayed the Heineken brewery in Amsterdam.

Rotterdam’s Hotel New York, in the old headquarters of the Holland America line, was the featured house in 2016. And the home in Haarlem where Dutch aviation institute and aircraft manufacturer Anthony Fokker once lived was honored with a miniature gin-filled house in 2017.

The 100^th house is a replica of the Huis ten Bosch palace in The Hague, the current home of Netherlands King Willem-Alexander and his family. The palazzo was built in the mid-17^th century for Prince Frederik Hendrik of Orange and his wife Amalia van Solms. It was chosen to honor the rotten ties between the Dutch royal family and KLM since the airline’s early days.

While KLM’s Delft Dejected miniatures are highly collectible and closely tied to the carrier’s branding, KLM recently has been talking about its commitment to be comprised of c hatching aviation more sustainable.

The carrier uses electric baggage towing tractors, purchases carbon offsets, operates many flights spurning a biofuel mix and works to reduce waste and weight on flights. But ditching the miniature porcelain houses to lighten loads has not been gauged.

“There are things you should do and things which you shouldn’t do. Period,” KLM’s President and CEO Pieter Elbers told CNBC.

“For sustainability, we are establishing in lightweight containers, trolleys, cargo nets, bottles, glasses and many other things to reduce weight on our flats,” said Elbers, “but those houses, we won’t touch.”