Brussels Airlines

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Brussels Airlines Avro RJ85.

Adrian Pingstone

Brussels Airlines, Belgian airline whose predecessor, SN Brussels Airlines, was formed in 2001 following the bankruptcy of SABENA (Société Anonyme Belge d’Exploitation de la Navigation Aérienne; Belgian Limited-Liability Company for the Development of Aerial Navigation). The airline serves cities in the United States, Europe, and Africa. Its headquarters are in Brussels.

SABENA was formed on May 23, 1923, as Belgium’s national carrier and flew its first flight the following year. Its initial efforts in the 1920s were to establish a network across Belgium linking London, England and Cologne, Germany; France and Scandinavia; and the Low Countries and Switzerland. In 1925 air service began within Belgium’s major colony, the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), though regularly scheduled service between Brussels and Léopoldville (Kinshasa) did not begin until 1935. World War II interrupted further development, but the postwar recovery led to a new expansion of networks, soon exceeding those of 1939. The Brussels–New York service was inaugurated in 1947. By the early 21st century SABENA’s routes reached throughout the Low Countries and the major cities and resorts of Europe and also overseas to the United States, Canada, Mexico, Africa, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, the Philippines, and Japan. SABENA’s subsidiaries consisted principally of airlines and hotel chains.

In the late 20th century SABENA began experiencing financial difficulties, and in 1995 a 49.5 percent stake in the airline was sold to Swissair, which was also granted operational control; the Belgian government owned 50.5 percent. Although SABENA in 1998 posted a profit for the first time in a decade, its finances worsened, stemming in part from overexpansion and the decrease in air travel that followed the September 11 attacks of 2001. Swissair then failed to make a promised investment in the Belgian airline in 2001 and later that year declared bankruptcy. Unable to obtain financial backing elsewhere, SABENA went into liquidation in November 2001. Parts of the airline reorganized and flew under the name Delta Air Transport, which was a regional subsidiary of SABENA. Starting in 2002 the new airline operated under the name SN Brussels Airlines, but the carrier changed its name again in 2007 through a merger with Virgin Express, a Belgian airline formerly owned by British entrepreneur Richard Branson. The new carrier, Brussels Airlines, began service in March 2007.