Sabena

I wanna to tell you something about our former flag carrier SABENA Belgian world airlines. Sabena, La Société Anonyme Belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation Aérienne was founded in 1923 and is the 2nd oldest Airline of the world. Well was the 2nd oldest airline, it went bankrupt in november 2001 because of the criminal management of Swissair and the incompetent Belgian governement.
Sabena is Africa and Africa is Sabena, its a famous line they say all the time. Sabena started in Africa and Africa made Sabena big. It was a monopolist on the black continent and the biggest airline in Africa. South African is really small in africa compared to sabena.
Sabena was a pioneer in everything. It was the first airline to use big aircrafts and the first airline to organise intercontinental flights (Brussels-Leopoldville/Leopoldstad in the Belgian congo). It also evacuated more than 30.000 Belgians in a few days in 1960 right after the independence of Congo.
Sabena has been destroyed by Swissair. Swissair bought 49.5% of sabena and used it for its own profits. In 5 years most of the money has been sucked out by Swissair. Sabena wasn't really profitable but when it made profits in 1998 (the 2nd time) swissair wanted sabena to buy 30 aircrafts. This is one of the reasons why sabena went bankrupt. Sabena didn't have the money. The planes were then leased at flightlease (swissair daughter) and sabena had to pay more than normal.
Profitable lines were closed. The line Brussels-Johannesburg (the pearl on the crown of sabena) was closed by swissair.
This line was emotional very important for Belgium. Flemings still see South Africa (especially the cape region, Transvaal and Oranje vrijstaat) as brother regions. Afrikaners speak the same language. Flanders never critisized the apartheid policy of the former South African governement. This line was really profitable because there are more than 20.000 flemish families in South Africa.
After sabena closed this line, Swissair opened the line Zurich-Johannesburg in cooperation with SAA/SAL (Suid Afrikaanse Lugdiens/South African Airways). Swissair got 20% of the income of this line from SAA/SAL.
At the moment there is an investigation and a parlementary comission. The Management of Sabena tried to destroy evidence right after the bankrupcy.
I personally think every country should have his own national airline. The European Union (ruled by France, UK and Germany)
only want 3 airlines (Air France, British Airways and Lufthansa). This is Bullshit of course coz little countries can have a profitable airline and those airlines can be big.
The only reason why those airlines are big is because France, Germany and the UK simply ignore the EU rules concerning state support.
10.000 people worked for Sabena, lots of companies relied on the airline and sabena was responsible for 50% of the traffic on the Brussels International Airport. Sabena had to pay BIAC (the company that exploits the airport) the normal fees while Air France and KLM have to pay a symbolic Euro to land on Paris and Amsterdam, this is a sort of state support (most airports are still state owned) and is banned by the EU.
Conclusion: Swissair, the Belgian governement and the EU are responsible for the destruction of this beautiful airline and the destruction of the Belgian image. Thank you Europe!!
Swissair is bankrupt too(ahahaha), they went bankrupt first.
Swissair promised to pay Sabena EUR 600 million, they signed an agreement in Brussels. The Belgian governement would stop the law cases against swissair. Swissair never paid it and went bankrupt and is still flying thanks to the protection of the Swiss courts. They used a criminal construction to save Swissair, they brought all the activa to daughter Crossair and made it an independent company. This construction will be adapted by the Belgian governement to create DAT, the successor of sabena.
Swissair has his successor too, named Swiss (never heard such a lame name). There are lots of reasons NOT to fly this airline. Swissair and Crossair are pretty unsafe. Swissair had a crash a few years ago in New York and a few years later Crossair had a crash in Zurich. Sabena had a crash in the 50's and then never had a major accident.
Sabena still exists but has a new name, DAT: Delta Air Transport.
For people that want to fly DAT, good news. The new name of DAT is "SN Brussels Airlines". SN Brussels Airlines will start the flights to Africa the 26th April.