Johan Nicolaas Block (May 18, 1929,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

– April 11, 1994) was a Dutch aviation pioneer. He was the co-founder of

Martinair Martinair (legally ''Martinair Holland N.V.'') is a Dutch cargo and former passenger airline headquartered and based at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. The airline was founded in 1958 by Martin Schröder (aviator), Martin Schröder, and is currently ...

, founder of

Transavia Transavia Airlines C.V., trading as Transavia and formerly branded as ''transavia.com'', is a Dutch low-cost airline and a wholly owned subsidiary of KLM and therefore part of the Air France–KLM group. Its main base is Amsterdam Airport Sch ...

and Air Holland.

Early life

John Block was born as the son of a schoolteacher in Amsterdam. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

he applied for a job with

KLM KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, or simply KLM (an abbreviation for their official name Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. , ),

but wasn't hired. He joined the Dutch airforce and became an airforce pilot. After his service he briefly worked with a radio division of the Dutch postal services and obtained his commercial aviation licence.

Airline founder

Together with

Martin Schröder Martin Schröder may refer to: * Martin Schröder (chemist) (born 1954), professor of inorganic chemistry * Martin Schröder (aviator) (1931–2024), founder of Martinair {{Hndis, Schroder, Martin ...

he founded Martin's Air Charter, which was renamed

8 years later. They introduced leisure travel by plane in the Netherlands. Block left Martinair in 1965. In 1966, Block bought the 'sleeping' airline Transavia Limburg and refounded it as Transavia. It was originally established as an air charter operator. Block built up the airline from scratch and ten years later Transavia had a marketshare of 45% of the Dutch holiday market. After a quarrel with some investors Block left Transavia in 1975. He went on and founded the small company Jetstar Holland BV in 1977. As such he introduced the use of executive jet travel in the Netherlands. He sold the company soon after to an investment holding and went back to the larger scheme. In 1984, Block founded the airline Air Holland that went public in 1989. Block left Air Holland in 1991 following a fall in profits. Block died in 1994.

References

1929 births 1994 deaths Dutch aviators Businesspeople from Amsterdam 20th-century Dutch businesspeople {{Netherlands-business-bio-stub