SAB - Sabena

[Hirohitoswaifu]

Airline Name
Sabena

IATA: SN / ICAO: SAB / Callsign: SABENA

Country of Origin
Belgium

Aircraft Types Used (from those available in WoA)
AT72 (ATR 72-200) (2 operated),

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

A320 (A320-200) (6 operated),

A321 (A321-200) (3 operated),

A332 (A330-200) (6 operated),

A333 (A330-300) (4 operated),

A343 (A340-300) (3 operated),

B734 (737-400) (3 operated),

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

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

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

Not in-game,

A342 (A340-200) (2 operated),

B732 (737-200) (16 operated),

B733 (737-300) (6 operated),

B735 (737-500) (6 operated),

B742 (747-200) (2 operated),

B743 (747-300) (3 operated),

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

DC10 (Douglas DC 10-30) (10 operated),

E120 (Embraer 120 Brasilia) (3 operated),

JS31 (BAE Jetstream 31) (1 operated),

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.

[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