For almost five decades Martinair had been the second force in Dutch commercial aviation after KLM but it has experienced a change in fortune over the last ten years, as Richard Schuurman explains.
Say the name Martinair to any aviation enthusiast and many will immediately think of the carrier’s distinctive white and red liveried McDonnell Douglas tri-jets, full of happy holidaymakers or freight. That’s sadly all in the past now: the airline’s last passenger flight departed in 2011, its final MD-11 retired in July 2016 and, today, it’s a shadow of its former self, owning just a single Boeing 747-400 Freighter.