Air Belgium (1979)

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Air Belgium
Air Belgium logo
Air Belgium Boeing 757
IATA code : AJ
ICAO code : FIG
Call sign : AIR BELGIUM
Founding: 1979
Operation stopped: 2000
Seat: Brussels , BelgiumBelgiumBelgium 
Home airport : Brussels-Zaventem Airport
Number of employees: 80
Fleet size: 3
Aims: Mediterranean area , Portugal , Canary Islands
Air Belgium ceased operations in 2000. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation.

Air Belgium (originally Abelag Airways ) was a Belgian charter and scheduled airline that ceased operations in 2000.

history

The Boeing 707 of Abelag Airways in 1979

The Belgian tour operator Sun International and on business aviation specialized companies abelag aviation founded in on May 3, 1979 Brussels , the airline Abelag Airways . The company took over a Boeing 707 on May 19, 1979 and rented it to the French airline Union de Transports Aériens (UTA) from June to October 1979 and then to a Canadian airline. In January 1980, the Boeing 707 was replaced by a leased Boeing 737-200 , which was used for Sun International on IT charter flights to the Mediterranean . At the same time, Abelag Aviation withdrew from the company.

The Abelag Airways was then to on February 15, 1980 Air Belgium renamed. Up until October 1989, Air Belgium only had one aircraft of its own in use all year round. The first Boeing 737-200 was replaced in March 1982 by an identical machine, which for the first time was painted in Belgian national colors. The company started using a Boeing 737-300 from March 1986 , which in turn was replaced by a Boeing 737-400 in October 1988 . From 1983 onwards, Air Belgium rented additional aircraft from Sobelair when there was high demand and used them for a short time on its own route network in their color scheme. In addition, the company in 1987 operating two business jets of the type Dassault Falcon 20 on behalf of DHL Worldwide Express .

In the autumn of 1989 Air Belgium leased a Boeing 757 , with which from October 29, 1990 charter flights from Brussels via Bangor to Fort Lauderdale took place. Other transatlantic destinations were Miami , Curacao , Punta Cana and Recife from 1991 . In the same year Sobelair took a stake in the tour operator Sun International and subsequently held a 35% stake in Air Belgium . In order to improve the utilization of the aircraft, the company offered scheduled flights to Palma de Mallorca from November 26, 1991 and from 1992 to other tourist destinations. The remaining free spaces in the machines were marketed so that a combined charter and scheduled flight service took place on some European routes. In 1995 Air Belgium stopped the transatlantic charter flights for economic reasons and rented the Boeing 757 to the Swedish airline Sunways Airlines until the lease expired . In the same year the company carried 304,000 passengers.

The tour operator Sun International and its subsidiary Air Belgium were bought out by the British tourism group Airtours in 1998 . After the takeover, Air Belgium initially remained as an independent company. From 1999 the company started using two Airbus A320s , which were already painted in the colors of the British sister company Airtours International . On October 31, 2000, Air Belgium was fully integrated into the airline Airtours International and ceased operations.

aims

Air Belgium resulted mainly from Brussels, Liege and Ostend outbound charter flights to the Mediterranean , to the Algarve and to Madeira and the Canary Islands through. There were also transatlantic charter flights to Bangor , Curacao , Fort Lauderdale , Miami , Punta Cana and Recife between 1990 and 1995 .

Alicante , Faro , Funchal , Málaga , Las Palmas de Gran Canaria , Palma and Tenerife South Airport were served on scheduled flights .

fleet

A Boeing 737-300 in the paint scheme introduced in 1997

Fleet at the end of operations

At the time of cessation of operations, the company's fleet consisted of two Airbus A320s and one Boeing 737-400.

Previously deployed aircraft

See also

Web links

Commons : Air Belgium  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Leisure Airlines of Europe, K. Vomhof, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 2001
  2. a b jp aircraft-fleets international, various annual issues
  3. jp airline-fleets, Edition 2001/02
  4. Flight International, April 4, 1995 [1]
  5. Flight International, March 30, 1993 [2] (PDF; 1.6 MB)