KLM takes over remaining 50% of Martinair

[Buzz]

According to Luchtvaartnieuws.nl, AirFrance-KLM will take over the remaining 50% of Martinair.
Martinair will become a seperate devision within KLM and will keep it's identity.

More details will follow soon.

[HorsePower]

This has been waited for a long time. I'm a bit surprised however seeing how quickly things seems to get in place.

I would be very interrested if you have more informations and confirmation about this info.

Thanks in advance !

[aircolours]

According to Luchtvaartnieuws.nl, AirFrance-KLM will take over the remaining 50% of Martinair.
Martinair will become a seperate devision within KLM and will keep it's identity.

Ofcourse now it is intersting to see if the cargo division will be integrated into KLM-Air France and what they are going to do with the European charter part as rumours go they might integrate these with Transavia.

Brgds, Peter

[HorsePower]

Of course now it is intersting to see if the cargo division will be integrated into KLM-Air France and what they are going to do with the European charter part as rumours go they might integrate these with Transavia.

Part of the answer could be seen in the analysis I made few days ago (in french).

[Buzz]

More news on luchtvaartnieuws.nl (in Dutch) http://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl/news/?ID=20762

Short summary:

There is no question Martinair will go to KLM, since Maesk wants to sell and KLM wants to buy. The only hurdle they face is the EU competition commision.

Martinair has decided already that they will completely stop all shorthaul flying after the summer (bye bye A320's) and sell most other non-core companies like the Flight School. They will keep longhaul flights and it seems cargo will stay with Martinair as well...


When all is said and done I would think Cargo will go to AirFranceKLM cargo, since it is not productive to have another 100% owned company operating cargo aircraft within the same group. Long haul charter flights are all Martinair will have left, since KLM wouldn't want to operate them under their brand & cost structure IMHO.

[aircolours]

Martinair has decided already that they will completely stop all shorthaul flying after the summer (bye bye A320's)

I still wonder what they are going to do with the short-haul market. If they just stop or they transfer it to Transavia. The contracts for the winterseason must have been (just) signed??
Anyway, no more A320's. That's a shame. Hope they transfer the Jetix cartoons to a 767 then.

Brgds, Peter

[HorsePower]

Martinair has decided already that they will completely stop all shorthaul flying after the summer (bye bye A320's) and sell most other non-core companies like the Flight School.

Quite logical since they found it was hard to make a profit on routes with fiercing competition. On a side note, all the A320 fleet are on operating lease (the one at MIA is wet leased).

Idem for the flightschool: even with a renewed fleet of TB-10, the lack of students ready to pay tons of bucks for a job they aren't assured to have makes the aircraft are flying less and less often.

When all is said and done I would think Cargo will go to AirFranceKLM cargo, since it is not productive to have another 100% owned company operating cargo aircraft within the same group.

My mind exactly. Why keeping Martinair ops apart, whereas AF and KLM are merging their owns at the same time ?

Long haul charter flights are all Martinair will have left, since KLM wouldn't want to operate them under their brand & cost structure IMHO.

Why on earth KLM did order 6 A330-200 airframes, with so many options (18) ?

If they just stop or they transfer it to Transavia.

Transfering all european, north african and mediterrannean routes to Transavia will permit to keep both slots and routes.

[HorsePower]

From Martinair website :

SOLE SHAREHOLDER FOR MARTINAIR

Schiphol, 21 juni 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.

I wish them all the best...