Martinair Cargo

IATA MP ICAO MPH Callsign MARTINAIR
Founded	May 24, 1958 (as Martin's Air Charter)[1]
Hubs	Amsterdam Airport Schiphol
Fleet size	13
Destinations	32
Company slogan	"Your choice"
Parent company	Air France-KLM
Headquarters	Amsterdam Airport Schiphol Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands
Key people	Martin Schröder (Founder) Paul Gregorowitsch (President & CEO)[2] Diederik Pen (CEO from September 2011)
Website	www.martinair.com

For the American cargo airline, see Martinaire.

Martinair Holland N.V., operating as Martinair, is the second Dutch airline headquartered in the TransPort Building on the grounds of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands. It operates cargo services to over 50 destinations worldwide. Services are largely on a scheduled basis, but charter services are also operated. Its main base is Schiphol Airport.

History[link]

Martin's Air Charter de Havilland Dove at Groningen Airport in the early 1960s.

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.^[3] 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.^[4]

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.

A former Martinair Boeing 767-300ER takes off from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Netherlands. (2008)

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. 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.^[5]

In November 2007, Martinair ceased its short haul operations to concentrate on its cargo activities and intercontinental flights. In September 2010, a restructuring was announced: this will involve dropping all passenger services from November 2011, which will be operated by KLM, and leaving only cargo services.^[6] In November 2010, the European Commission fined Martinair €29.5 million, following an investigation into price-fixing.^[7]

On 31 October 2011, Martinair flew its last passenger flight, leaving it as a freight carrier only.^[8]

Corporate affairs[link]

Head office[link]

TransPort Building - Houses the head offices of Martinair and Transavia.com

Martinair has its head office in the TransPort Building, Schiphol East,^[9] on the grounds of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands.^[10] Martinair moved to its current head office on Friday 4 June 2010.^[9] The TransPort Building, developed by Schiphol Real Estate, houses both Martinair and Transavia.com,^[11] which moved into TransPort on 3 May 2010.^[12] 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.^[13] 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.^[11] In 2011 the United States Green Building Council awarded TransPort the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.^[14] A parking facility is located beneath the TransPort building, with parking available by payment.^[15]

The airline previously occupied the Schiphol Center (Dutch: Schiphol Centrum) at Schiphol Airport.^{[16][17][18][19]} After Martinair moved into the new building, Martinair sold its old head office back to the airport.^[16]

Subsidiaries[link]

• Martinair Flight Academy (Martinair Vliegschool) is a Flight Academy Based at Lelystad Airport for both Private Pilot training and Airline Transport Pilot training. Currently MFA operates four Socata TB-10s, two Socata TB-20s and a Piper PA-44 Seminole.^[20]

Destinations[link]

Martinair ended passenger operations in October 2011 after a 53 year run, for destinations served during the period at different stages see:

Martinair Cargo continues operating freighter services

Cargo[link]

Martinair Cargo has extensive operations in most parts of the world. It flies converted Boeing 747-400s (known as 747-400SFs or -400BCFs) to the Middle East, Far East and McDonnell Douglas MD-11Fs to destinations in Europe, the Americas, and Africa.

Fleet[link]

A Martinair Cargo Boeing 747-400BCF takes off at Sydney Airport, Australia.

Convair 640 in 1967

The Martinair fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of December 2011)^[21][22]

In 2006 Martinair purchased four Boeing 747-400's from Singapore Airlines. These passenger planes were converted to freighters to replace the older Boeing 747-200F's. In 2009 three out of the four 747's were stored because the air cargo business was suffering a lot. In the end of 2010 two of the 747-400's were leased to Air Cargo Germany.^[23][24] The remaining 747 returned into service in May 2011 with an untitled colour shame, because Martinair is not sure yet if the plane stays operating for them.^[25]

The first Mcdonnell Douglas MD-11 was delivered in December 1994. Throughout the next three years six other brand-new MD-11's were delivered to Martinair. In total four McDonnell Douglas MD-11CF's(Converted Freighter) and two full freighters were delivered.^[26][27] Martinair was the launch costumer of the converted freighter. In 2004 another MD-11F was added to the fleet, this one was previously owned by Swissair and then converted to full freighter.^[28] From 1995 to 2006 some of the convertible MD-11 were reconfigured to transport passengers in the high passenger peaks during the summer period. A reconfiguration from freighter to passenger plane takes five days and from passenger to freighter three days. The passenger configuration was fitted with 390 seats.^[29] After 2006 the demand lowered and Martinair did not need extra seats anymore. The lowering of the demand continued until after 53 years of Dutch service Martinair ceased all their passenger flights.

As of 8 December 2011, Martinair's average fleet age is 15 years.(Including the four leased aircraft)^[30][31]

Incidents and accidents[link]

• On 4 December 1974, Martinair Flight 138, a Douglas DC-8 flew into the side of a mountain while on landing approach in Colombo, Sri Lanka. All 191 passengers and crew on board were killed.^[32]
• On 21 December 1992, Martinair Flight 495, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, crashed during landing at Faro Airport, Portugal; killing 56 people (including two crew members) out of 340 on board.^[33] The cause of the accident was due to Microburst-induced wind shear.

References[link]

Notes and References

Sources

• "A Sheep With Five Legs", Air Enthusiast, 4, Bromley, England: Fine Scroll, March 1973, pp. 121–124, 146 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Martinair

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