Martinair

Early years

The airline was founded on 24 May 1958 as Martin's Air Charter (MAC), by Martin Schröder and John Block, with one aircraft, a de Havilland Dove, and five employees. In 1963 Mr. Schröder sold 49% of the company to four equal shipping company shareholders (12.25% each, these eventually combining as Nedlloyd). KLM would later purchase the 50+% that Mr. Schröder owned, buying him out.

The name was changed to Martinair Holland in 1966. A healthy boost came in 1967 with the opening of business to the United States. Martinair became all jet-powered in 1971.

In 1991, the first aircraft with the Martinair Cargo name was introduced, and Holland was dropped from all aircraft. In 1996, Martinair bought a 40% stake in Colombian cargo carrier TAMPA Cargo, based in Medellín, which it increased to 58% in 2003. The share in TAMPA was sold in February 2008 to Avianca, a Colombian company.

Martinair president and CEO Martin Schröder, who received the Tony Jannus Award in 1995 for his contributions to commercial aviation, retired in 1998 from day-to-day activities. Also that year, the European Commission in Brussels refused KLM's offer to purchase Nedlloyd's shares, which would have made KLM the sole owner.

The first McDonnell Douglas MD-11 was delivered in December 1994. Throughout the next three years six other brand-new MD-11s were delivered to Martinair. In total four McDonnell Douglas MD-11CFs (convertible freighter) and two full freighters were delivered. Martinair was the launch customer of the convertible freighter. In 2004 another MD-11F was added to the fleet, this one was previously owned by Swissair, and then converted to full freighter. From 1995 to 2006 some of the convertible MD-11 were reconfigured to transport passengers in the high passenger peaks during the summer period. The passenger configuration was fitted with 390 seats. After 2006 the demand lowered and Martinair did not need extra seats anymore.

Development since the 2000s

In 2006 Martinair purchased four Boeing 747-400s from Singapore Airlines. These passenger planes were converted to freighters to replace the older Boeing 747-200Fs.

In June 2007, Martinair announced that it wanted one shareholder, preferably KLM, and in 2008 permission was obtained from the European commission. The transfer of remaining shares took place on 31 December 2008. In November 2007, Martinair ceased its short haul operations to concentrate on its cargo activities and intercontinental flights.

In 2009 three out of the four 747s were stored because of the economic crisis. In September 2010, a restructuring was announced which would involve dropping all passenger services from November 2011, which will be partly taken over by KLM, and leaving only cargo services. In November 2010, the European Commission fined Martinair €29.5 million, following an investigation into price-fixing.

In the end of 2010 two of the 747-400s were leased to Air Cargo Germany. The remaining 747 (PH-MPS) returned into service in May 2011 with an untitled colour scheme, because Martinair wasn't sure yet if the plane would remain operating for them.

In October 2011, Martinair ceased passenger service, which it had operated since its founding in 1958. Martinair had passenger service throughout Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Africa from Amsterdam. The last passenger flight took place on 31 October 2011, leaving it as a freight carrier only until today.

In March 2015, Air France-KLM announced to shrink their dedicated cargo operations. Therefore, all of Martinair's McDonnell Douglas MD-11Fs were phased out by 2016 without replacement. Additionally, 330 jobs might be cut due to the downsizing.

Offices

Martinair has its head office in the TransPort Building, Schiphol East, on the grounds of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands. Martinair moved to its current head office on Friday 4 June 2010. The TransPort Building, developed by Schiphol Real Estate, houses both Martinair and Transavia, which moved into TransPort on 3 May 2010.

Construction on the building, which has 10,800 square metres (116,000 sq ft) of lettable space, began on 17 March 2009. Schiphol Group and the architect firm Paul de Ruiter designed the building, while De Vries and Verburg, a firm of Stolwijk, constructed the building. The Dutch Green Building Council awarded its first Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM-NL) certificate to Schiphol Real Estate for building the TransPort Building. In 2011 the United States Green Building Council awarded TransPort the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. A parking facility is located beneath the TransPort building, with parking available by payment.

The airline previously occupied the Schiphol Center (Dutch: Schiphol Centrum) at Schiphol Airport. After Martinair moved into the new building, Martinair sold its old head office back to the airport.

In addition to its headquarters at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Martinair operates offices around the globe. The first international office has been opened in Hong Kong in 1975. Martinair USA, later Martinair Americas Originally operated in New York City, but the USA operations office moved to Boca Raton, Florida in the Miami Metropolitan Area in 1993. This office moved again and is currently located in Doral, Florida in the Miami area. This office is located in the Doral Corporate Center One.

Subsidiaries

The Martinair Flight Academy is a flight academy based at Lelystad Airport for both private pilot training and airline transport pilot training. MFA operates four Socata TB-10s and two Socata TB-20s. In 2011 a Diamond DA42 NG was added to the fleet. Additionally, Martinair operates the Regional Jet Center, a technical service center for aircraft maintenance.

Destinations

As of July 2016, Martinair operates scheduled freight services to 20 destinations as well as additional charters. The company ended its additional passenger operations in October 2011 after 53 years.

Fleet

As of December 2016, the Martinair fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Additional freight aircraft are jointly operated under the Air France-KLM Cargo brand, in which Martinair participates.

Incidents and accidents