The F.XlX, like the Fokker XV, the Fokker F.XVI and the Fokker F.XXI, was intended as a replacement for the F.XII on KLM's Dutch East Indies route.

The F.XIX design had a fuselage and wings identical with those of the F.XVI. A special feature - at least for the Fokker factories in Holland - was the tandem arrangement of the engines which were mounted in pairs in port and starboard nacelles.

Each of the front engines drove a two-bladed tractor prop and each of the rear engines a three-bladed pusher prop.
This configuration had been used by the American Fokker plant for its F.32 design. KLM studied the American aircraft as a possible replacement for its Indies route equipment, but decided that it was too big.

At this point Fokker designed the F.XIX which, with some imagination, might be called a smaller F.32. In the F.XIX a maximum of 16 passengers could be accommodated.

For the Indies route, this number was reduced to ten persons. The front six positions were normal, specially comfortable seats, and the rear four could be quickly converted to sleeping berths with the help of folding backs and foot rests. The cabin space between the rear propellers was taken up by cupboards rather than seats as the noise level in this area was too high.

There was also a danger that ice thrown off the propellers could penetrate the fuselage. KLM did not seem enthusiastic about the tandem engine design. Possibly the known overheating problems with the rear engines of the F.32 played a role in this.

KLM preferred the conventional configuration with engines in the nose and under the wing, as with the F.XVIII. KLM's chairman Albert Plesman, was not looking for something out of the usual - he had said more than once that his company was not a test facility.