Fokker NV said the regional-jet maker's main units filed for bankruptcy, effectively putting the Netherlands' 77-year-old aviation industry out of business.
The bankruptcy will result in the loss of 5,664 jobs, the biggest firing in Dutch history, from a total Fokker group work force of 7,900.Fokker NV, the parent company, along with Fokker Aircraft BV - the core aircraft-making unit - and Fokker Administration BV filed for bankruptcy. Other units will be absorbed by Fokker Aviation BV.
"With this bankruptcy, the . . . aircraft industry in the Netherlands has come to an end," Fokker Chairman Ben van Schaik told a press conference.
The demise of Fokker, which came after it failed to win bids for all or part of the company from Samsung Aerospace Industries Corp. of South Korea or Aviation Industries of China, may be welcomed elsewhere. It cuts capacity in an industry that long has suffered from a glut of manufacturers: Nearly a dozen other companies build 50- to 100-seat planes.
"There was a lot of interest in Fokker," Dutch Economics Minister Hans Wijers said, "but in the end parties thought the risks were too large."
Van Schaik announced the collapse of Fokker, which has been unprofitable for three years and piled up debts, at the Aviodome, the Dutch aviation museum that features such early models as the Fokker Dr.I - made famous by "Red Baron" Manfred von Richthofen, the World War I German flying ace.
Fokker filed for protection from creditors in late January after its two main shareholders, the Dutch government and Daimler-Benz Aerospace AG of Germany, failed to agree on a rescue package.