This week, an eagle-eyed flyer travelling with KLM noticed that, in the airline’s in-flight magazine Holland Herald, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines had accidentally used a photo of Groningen in an article highlighting Amsterdam. Definitely not a good look for the flag carrier airline of the Netherlands!

Dutch airline mistakes Groningen for Amsterdam

Perhaps the editorial team was in a rush to make a deadline, or maybe someone was just so impressed by the charming photo of people skating on a frozen canal that they failed to notice the canal is (pretty obviously) not in the Dutch capital. Instead, it's a photo of the Lage der A in Groningen, with the tower of the Akerk in the background.

Luckily - or maybe unluckily - one eagle-eyed Dutchie noticed KLM’s error. Daniel van der Ree, a former council member for the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) was flying from Switzerland to the Netherlands when he picked up the latest edition of the Holland Herald and realised that the canal pictured was definitely not in Amsterdam. 

Bij de @klm dachten ze, we doen gewoon een foto van Groningen bij het artikel over Amsterdam in de Holland Herald. Al die grachtjes zijn toch hetzelfde ... pic.twitter.com/0McXy6twCw

— Daniel van der Ree 🇳🇱 (@danielvanderree) February 15, 2023

KLM pokes fun at blunder, corrects mistake in online magazine

Credit where credit’s due, KLM’s social media team were pretty quick to respond to the call out, thanking Van der Ree for the “wise lesson” and referencing the city of Groningen’s motto: “there you have it; nothing beats Groningen.”

While nothing can be done to correct the error in print, the digital edition of the magazine has been updated, and now features an equally enchanting photo of people skating on a frozen-over Prinsengracht in Amsterdam.

Thumb: OlenaPalaguta via Shutterstock.com.