The story
Founded by Martin Schröder in 1958, in Amsterdam.1
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 was 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 no longer needed extra seats.
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.
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At 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 was undecided if the plane would remain operating for them.
On 31 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.
In March 2015, Air France-KLM announced an intention to shrink their dedicated cargo operations. As a result, all of Martinair's McDonnell Douglas MD-11Fs were phased out by 2016 without replacement. Additionally, 330 jobs were cut due to the downsizing.
From Wikipedia’s article on Martinair, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4