SN Brussels Airlines

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SN Brussels Airlines (SNBA) is a Belgian airline operating from Brussels National Airport, made up from part of the failed Sabena airline. The airline started from Sabena's subsidiary Delta Air Transport (DAT). The airline is a member of IATA and the Association of European Airlines (AEA). SN Brussels Airlines is owned by SN Airholding which also owns Virgin Express.

Contents

1 History
2 Destinations
3 Timeline
4 Fleet
5 Gallery
6 External links

History

After the bankruptcy of Sabena, Belgium was left without a national airline. SN Brussels Airlines was founded in 2002, when a group of Belgian investors (companies, financial institutions and regional investment companies, as well as the Brussels and Walloon government), headed by Etienne Davignon set up SN Airholding.

[SN Brussels Airlines Avro RJ85]

In February 2002, SN Airholding took over the Belgian airline DAT, which was a subsidiary of Sabena and survived the bankruptcy, and changed its name to SN Brussels Airlines. SN Airholding owns 92% of the shares in the airline. SN has positioned itself in the European market as a small, full-service airline, connecting Brussels with the rest of Europe. SN also flies to Africa, continuing Sabena's extensive network there. A codeshare agreement with American Airlines allows SN Brussels Airlines to offer its passengers flights to the United States. SN Brussels is a candidate to join the oneworld alliance.

On April 12 2005, SN Airholding signed an agreement with Richard Branson, giving it the holding control over Virgin Express - a low cost carrier flying from Brussels National Airport. The name Virgin Express will disappear.

In July 2005, SN announced that they would be offering flights to Toronto and Abu Dhabi after a code share agreement was signed with Abu Dhabi-based airline Etihad Airways.

Chairman Rob Kuijpers resigned on 19 September 2005 after a long conflict with the board of directors concerning which strategy to follow after the merger of SN with Virgin Express. Neil Burrows has been named chair for a one year term.

On 31 March 2006 SNBA and Virgin Express announced their fusion into a single company. The name of this future airline has been decided but has not yet been made public. The airline plans to become the main airline operating from Brussels International Airport, with a marketshare of 55% at Brussels. The combined airline will add long haul destinations and strengthen the position of the airline in Africa. Around the same time SN announced that they would be code-sharing on the new Brussels-Beijing flight operated by Hainan Airlines.

Early july 2006, the Cameroon government announced that SNBA had won the bid to revamp the countries airline, Camair. A holding controlled by SNBA will have 51 percent of the shares in the new company, while the Cameroon government will hold the remaining 49 percent. Speculations are that SNBA will be sending six of their older BAE 146-300 planes to Africa as part of the plans to form a regional hub at Douala airport.

On 1st July all SNBA's A330-300 fleet will have the new SN seats fitted, including lie-flat beds in Business Class and new seats in Economy Class, and some cabin improvements.

Destinations

Timeline

November 10th, 2001: First flight of Delta Air Transport after the bankruptcy of mother company Sabena.
February 15th, 2002: New name for DAT: SN Brussels Airlines.
April 26, 2002: Codeshare started with Birdy Airlines for its African Destinations. These operations are later fully integrated into SN Brussels Airlines.
February 7, 2003: Three Airbus A319 received.
February 7, 2003: New color scheme for SNBA aircraft.
Summer 2003: Codeshare with American Airlines for destinations in the U.S..
2004-2005: Financial merge of SN Brussels Airlines with Virgin Express.
October 31, 2005: Etihad Airways connects Abu Dhabi to Toronto with a stop in Brussels, SN Brussels Airlines codeshares on both legs.
July 30, 2006: Sn Brussels Airlines opens a new subsidiary in Cameroon. It will be used as a regional hub.

Fleet

Total of 38 aircraft

The average age of the SN Brussels Airlines fleet is 9.8 years (at April 2006)

Gallery

Image:snba.rj85.london.750pix.jpg|SN Brussels Airlines Avro RJ85

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

[Special]

Airlines of Belgium
Abelag Aviation \| European Air Transport \| Jetairfly \| SN Brussels Airlines \| TNT Airways \| Thomas Cook Airlines (Belgium) \| VLM Airlines \| Virgin Express

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