John Block - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Posted by: 
Metro2
N 52° 18.544 E 004° 45.800
31U E 620213 N 5796878
This bust is located in Amsterdam's Shiphol Airport...in an area open to the public.
Waymark Code: WMEAJC
Location: Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Date Posted: 04/27/2012
Views: 19
This bust of Dutch avaiation pioneer John Block is located in the mall area of Shiphol Airport with 3 others. Block is depucted as a middle-aged man wearing a suit and tie and looking straight ahead.
All four of the busts are set on similar brown marble pedestals. This one is engraved:
"JOHN BLOCK
1929-1994
NEDERLANDSE
LUCHTVAARTPIONIER"
Unfortunately, no information about the artist or date could be found at the site or online.
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us about Block:
Johan Nicolaas Block (May 18, 1929, Amsterdam – April 11, 1994) was a Dutch aviation pioneer. He was the co-founder of Martinair, founder of Transavia and Air Holland.
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. Together with Martin Schröder he founded Martinair. They introduced leisure travel by plane in the Netherlands. Block left the company in 1965 and shortly after bought the 'sleeping' airline Transavia Limburg which he renamed to Transavia. He build 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 he founded the airline Air Holland that went public in 1989. Block left Air Holland in 1991 and died in 1994."