Noticias & hechos

Press releases

• 1.Martinair Cargo starts new service to Xiamen, PRC China - August 13, 2007

  Amsterdam/Hong Kong, August 13, 2007. Following the successful operation in Nanjing & Tianjin, Dutch freighter specialist Martinair Cargo will extend its step in China and start a weekly Boeing 747 freighter service between Xiamen and Amsterdam (the Netherlands) as from August 26, 2007.
  The flights will operate every Sunday on the route Xiamen-Bangkok-Sharjah-Amsterdam. Martinair will offer capacity to Europe as well as to its cargo hubs in Bangkok & Sharjah. Cargo from Europe to Xiamen will be accommodated on Martinair’s flights every Saturday on the route Amsterdam-Sharjah-Tianjin-Xiamen.

  Xiamen is located on the southeastern coast of Fujian Province and its economy is growing rapidly as an increasingly popular site for foreign investors. Xiamen has become a “window city” for China’s opening to the outside world since its establishment as one of China’s first four Special Economic Zones in 1981.

  Mr. Ivan Wu (36), graduated from Xiamen University, is appointed as Sales Manager Xiamen and will oversee all the commercial activities of Martinair Cargo in Xiamen. Mr. Wu has more than 13 years of experience in Air Cargo industry by starting his career in Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Limited.  Moreover, he has good connection in sales and operations in Xiamen.
  He reports to Mr. Francis Tsao (61), Sales Director Eastern & Northern China, who is based in Shanghai.

• 2.President & CEO Arie Verberk to be succeeded by Paul Gregorowitsch - July 27, 2007

  Schiphol Airport, July 27, 2007. Effective September 1, 2007, Arie Verberk will be succeeded by Paul Gregorowitsch as President & CEO of Martinair. Mr. Verberk will be reaching the age of 65 and will be retiring from Martinair after 12 years of service.

  Until recently, Paul Gregorowitsch (51) served as the commercial director of KLM’s Passenger Division. After joining KLM in 1980, Mr. Gregorowitsch held various Passenger and Cargo-related positions at home and abroad.

• 3.Sole shareholder for Martinair - June 26, 2007

  Schiphol, 21 June 2007. Developments in the market and fundamental changes in the airline industry over the past years force Martinair Holland to reposition itself in order to secure continuity of its operations in the future. Adjustments of destinations, product and organisation have so far not given the company a firm base to be sustainable in the years to come. In view of the above the Shareholders, Supervisory Board and Board of Directors have come to the conclusion that it would be in the interest of all stakeholders to realize a single shareholder structure for Martinair, preferably with KLM. It is the intention of shareholders to start negotiations to effectuate this.

  Apart from this the Supervisory Board and the Board of Directors have the intention to commence a restructuring program that should lead to a long term sustainable operation.
  A recent in depth study of the various Martinair activities has shown that Martinair's cargo business is healthy and has a solid reputation. The activity shows substantial upside.

  Martinair's long haul passenger business is considered to have enough potential to warrent continuation, but needs to improve its results drastically to be sustainable in the long run. This can not be said for the short haul passenger business. Martinair intends to exit this market as the sub scale operation leads to prohibitively high unit costs and in view of the price levels and fierce competition in this market it is not justified to invest to reach the necessary scale.

  Martinair will look at the sustainability of other activities and will either divest them or keep them where outsourcing is not possible or justified.
  The Supervisory Board and Board of Directors are aware that these substantial measures will have negative consequences for part of its staff. It goes without saying that a social plan will be put in place to deal with the unavoidable forced retirement of some of our staff as fairly as possible. In the coming weeks management will start discussions with all relevant stakeholders - especially Martinair's Works Council – in order to be able to effectuate the above intended decisions.

• 4.Martinair generates net loss of € 7 million in 2006 - April 24, 2007

  Schiphol, April 24, 2007. While a net profit of € 14 million had been achieved in 2005, Martinair closed 2006 at a net loss of € 7 million. Operating income for 2006 totaled minus € 17 million (2005: € 22 million). Total turnover amounted to more than € 1.2 billion (2005: € 1.1 billion).

  Cargo turnover rose by 13% to € 798 million (2005: € 706 million) and cargo volume grew by 6% to 3,712 million cargo ton/kilometers (2005: 3,518 million). Cargo activities achieved a loss of € 3 million (2005: € 40 million positive). The results were negatively impacted by high fuel prices and a number of one-off costs associated with phasing out the Boeing 747-200 fleet. The results achieved on cargo operations suffered also as a result of the negative figures generated by Colombian subsidiary Tampa Cargo.

  Turnover on passenger operations rose by 10% to € 377 million (2005: € 342 million). In relation to last year, the number of passenger seat/kilometers remained more or less constant at 9,068 million (2005: 9,095 million). Passenger operations generated a loss of € 15 million
  in 2006 (2005: minus € 17 million). Despite achieving various improvements, spiralling jet fuel prices rendered these largely ineffective.

  Other activities related to third-party work and the subsidiaries Marfo, MVVL and Skyjob and amounted to € 61 million (2005: € 50 million). The activities generated a profit of € 1 million (2005: a loss of € 1 million)

  Interest rate charges amounted to € 4 million (2005: € 4 million). Tax gains amounted to € 8 million in 2006, while the tax burden amounted to € 1 million in 2005.

  In 2007, Martinair strives to return to profitability levels comparable to the years before 2006.

• 5.Record volumes of Valentine flowers for Martinair Cargo - February 25, 2007

  Schiphol Airport, February 25, 2007. Martinair Cargo has been transporting thousands of flower boxes for this year’s Valentine’s Day around the world.  During the pick period of January 22 through February 7, Martinair Cargo moved 7,500 tons of flowers from South America to the United States and Europe. Martinair operations in Africa (Nairobi and Harare) accounted for an additional 1800 tons of cut flowers to Europe.  Combined that is a record 9,300 tons of flowers being transported to satisfy the ever growing demand by consumers of fresh cut flowers on this day dedicated to love and friendship.

  In the American operation Martinair and daughter Tampa Cargo Airlines jointly moved the cut flowers. Martinair is specialized in the transport of fresh cut flowers by providing state of the art cool-chain logistics using a combination of vacuum cooling, refrigerated trucks and warehouse coolers at their facilities.