SAB - Sabena

[Hirohitoswaifu]

Airline Name
Sabena

IATA: SN / ICAO: SAB / Callsign: SABENA

Country of Origin
Belgium

Aircraft Types Used (from those available in WoA)

A319 (A319-100) (15 operated + 10 on order),

A320 (A320-200) (6 operated),

A320 wingfence,

Bonus nose view from an A320 at Zurich, waiting for 2 Swissair’s to cross with a thick band of fog slowly coming down the runway,

A321 (A321-200) (3 operated),

Qualiflyer livery,

A332 (A330-200) (6 operated),

Old livery,

A333 (A330-300) (4 operated),

Old livery (Blue panel not supposed to be blue),

A343 (A340-300) (3 operated),

Wing fence logo,

Old livery,

75th Anniversary livery (For close in look at sticker, the MD-11 had the same video),

B734 (737-400) (3 operated),

Late 1980s livery,

B463 (BAE 146-300/Avro RJ100) (13 operated),

Old livery,

75th Anniversary colours,

DH8C (Dash 8-300) (8 operated),

MD11 (McDonnell Douglas MD-11) (2 operated) (The reason for doing this airline),

75th Anniversary 1998 livery,

Not in-game,

A342 (A340-200) (2 operated),

Ex-Air France mostly painted livery,

75th Anniversary livery,

B732 (737-200) (16 operated),

B733 (737-300) (6 operated),

Final livery,

1990’s livery,

Early 1990s livery,

B735 (737-500) (6 operated),

Late 1980s livery,

1995 at PRG,

B742 (747-200) (2 operated),

B743 (747-300) (3 operated),

75th Anniversary 1998 sticker livery,

Late 1980s livery,

Quote from the photo source for below “When Sabena code shared with British Caledonian, they used 747’s on BRU-LGW-ATL-LGW-BRU route. First flight was 29th May 1986. Delivery date was 10th June, 1986 Onto N3439F and stored at Marana since 6/2000”

Just came out of the paint shop and they painted the tail logo the wrong way round,

AT72 (ATR 72-211) (2 operated),

B462 (BAE 146-200/Avro RJ85) (22 operated),

Old livery,

Early 1990s livery,

DC10 (Douglas DC 10-30) (10 operated, 5 CF’s operated till 1994, then 2 more between 1994 and 1997 which were painted as below with one later painted in the 101 Dalmatians livery),

Late 1980s livery for the 5 CF’s,

When used for freight,

101 Dalmatians livery,

E120 (Embraer 120 Brasilia) (3 operated),

JS31 (BAE Jetstream 31) (1 operated),

A310 (A310-300) (2 operated),

A310 (A310-200) (3 operated),

Late 1980s livery,

B741 (747-100 SCD) (2 operated, 2 more leased),

Why should this airline be added?
Sabena was founded in 1923 as Belgium’s national airline. Due to the fallout of the Gulf War in 1991 and the liberalisation of the airline industry in Europe, the Belgian government was looking to sell the airline to a partner airline, who would be able to help one-another out. This airline was Swissair in 1995, though Sabena was in a poor financial state at this point. Swissair invested and updated the fleet with orders for new Airbus aircraft and newer Avro RJ85/100s to replace the dated 747s, 737s and DC-10s the airline was operating. The leasing of 2 MD-11s in 1999 from CityBird, the reason for this post , was to aid the airline to operate long haul routes it had dropped previously including GRU. The airline was still struggling when hit by the sudden drop in air travel demand due to 9/11 in 2001, which led to the airline to be in dire straits and needing a cash injection from Swissair, which sadly never came due to their own monetary issues. The airline collapsed on 6th November 2001, followed closely by Swissair in March 2002 with their final flight being from GRU to Zurich.

Swissair’s regional subsidiary Crossair renamed itself Swiss International and took over all operations, being the Swiss we know today, whereas Sabena wasn’t as lucky. A group of investors took over Delta Transport Group, which was a Sabena subsidiary, and relaunched the regional airline under SN Brussels Airlines, an airline I might do at some point (I did it SAB - SN Brussels Airlines ), which in 2006 merged with Virgin Express to form the Brussels Airlines we know today.

It would be a cool addition as a sort of ‘competitor’ to Lufthansa owned Brussels Airlines, whilst also adding in another MD-11 livery for the upcoming model, the whole reason for doing this post which I was going to ask for as a special livery but might as well be a full contract airline.

Edit: After having done SN, thought to myself that maybe they should all be one airline in-game. But that is down to the devs decisions and whether different callsigns can be used for the same airline in-game, a question recently raised regarding British Airways Cityflyer.

Edit, NO.2: Extra photos and a link to Swissair. Hope we see Sabena soon, even if it was just the A320 family

[DHC8]

@Hirohitoswaifu

AT72 (ATR 72-200) (2 operated),

This is definitely an ATR 72-210

[Jamesonplanes]

Would very much like this, odd how they had so many types of aircraft, and in such low quantities, surely it would make more sense to just have 3 or 4

[BelGoFly]

Might have played a part in their demise…

[Hirohitoswaifu]

It might be, can’t recall . Tbh, not sure what the difference is.

[Hirohitoswaifu]

They operated DC10s and 747s for their long haul, then 737s for their short haul. The fleet was aging and Swissair came in with a great idea to renew the fleet with all airbus aircraft, but they never got round to retiring all the 737s and the MD11/747-300 were still in operation whilst the A340 and A330 were too. I feel they had a big route network that was under used, Swissair, which if you read into it was a walking catastrophe hidden under a thin veneer, took over it after most other airlines had looked away, and thought the best method was to fleet renewal rather than cut down on unnecessary costs. Also, Belgian government kept bullying Swissair into paying more money to Sabena. It was an odd situation exacerbated by the 1991 financial crash, fuel prices through the roof after the Gulf war and then ultimately 9/11 knocked the final nail into the coffin, quicker than it was already being applied.

[DHC8]

Hahaha the props alone will tell you

[Hirohitoswaifu]

Added some extra photos,

The A340-200, amongst others like the 747-300, MD-11, had a 75th Anniversary livery sticker on both sides, sadly it only made it to 2001.

Both perfect for the ZRH update considering the airline was owned by Swissair and had maintenance at ZRH for some of the types.

Plus the B463 would be great to see too,