Martinair, the Dutch charter airline whose history goes back as far as 1958, is likely to come under the umbrella of the Air France/KLM Group following a study by the carriers joint 50% stakeholders ” KLM and Maersk. This concluded the airline would be better off with a single shareholder.
Maersk, officially, A.P. Moller Group, is a Copenhagen-based international conglomerate involved in a diverse range of business industries including transportation, oil production and shipbuilding. Although involved in air transport from the early days it has in more recent times devolved itself of interests in that area, selling Estonian Air and the Maersk airline itself.
The sale of its interests by Maersk was first considered two years ago but informally rejected by Brussels. However there is a change of thinking by the European Commission (EC) as the EU airline market has evolved and it is now thought likely that there will be no objection.
A KLM spokesman said 100% ownership would allow joint network planning and other synergies, but would not necessarily lead to a merger. He said there was far more airline competition in Europe now and Brussels had seen that it was no longer relevant to look at the Dutch market in isolation. At the present time Martinair is changing its focus from the European short haul market to its long haul cargo and passenger operations.
With two elderly Boeing 747-200 freighters being replaced by a pair of 400 series aircraft, the Martinair fleet is expected to consist of four B747-400 freighters and seven MD-11s by early 2008.