Wim Butte and André Hesselink founded Airtrade in 1989. The two pioneers started by selling airline tickets to travel agencies. In the same year they opened the first ‘ Vliegwinkel ‘ ( Flightshop ) in Haarlem. In the first year Airtrade generated a turnover of 16 million guilders.  After this flying start Airtrade remained successfull. In 2011 the expected sales turnover will be 170 million euro’s.

The two founders sold Airtrade  in 1998 to BCD Holdings, founded by John Fentener van Vlissingen. Wim and Andre but remained actively involved in the company. Wim Butte is still CEO of Airtrade.

A BCD company

Airtrade is part of BCD Holdings.
BCD Holdings has approximately 13,500 employees, offices in 30 countries and its partners and affiliates in over 90 countries worldwide. BCD Holdings generated in 2010 a revenue of U.S. $ 20.3 billion (including franchising).

BCD Holdings companies are:

• BCD Travel (business travel)
• Travix (online travel: Cheap Tickets, Vliegwinkel, BudgetAir, Flugladen and Vayama)
• Airtrade (consolidating, fulfillment, IT Services and Airline Services)
• TRX (travel technologies)
• Park NFly (airport parking)
• Parkmobile International (mobile parking and traffic applications)
• VakantieXperts (leisure travel)
• Primary Capital (real estate)