John Nicolaas Block

John Block was born as the son of a schoolteacher in Amsterdam. After World War II he applied for a job with KLM 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. ^{[citation needed]}

Together with Martin Schröder he founded Martin's Air Charter, which was renamed Martinair 8 years later.^[1] They introduced leisure travel by plane in the Netherlands. Block left Martinair in 1965.^{[citation needed]}

In 1966, Block bought the 'sleeping' airline Transavia Limburg^[2] and refounded it as Transavia.^[3] It was originally established as an air charter operator.^[2] Block built up the airline from scratch and ten years later Transavia had a marketshare of 45% of the Dutch holiday market.^{[citation needed]} After a quarrel with some investors Block left Transavia in 1975.^[4]

He went on and founded the small company Jetstar Holland BV in 1977.^[5] 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.^{[citation needed]}

In 1984, Block founded the airline Air Holland that went public in 1989. Block left Air Holland in 1991 following a fall in profits.^[1]

Block died in 1994.^{[citation needed]}