City Bird
| City Bird | |
|---|---|
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|
|
| IATA code : | H2 |
| ICAO code : | CTB |
| Call sign : | DREAM FLIGHT |
| Founding: | 1996 |
| Operation stopped: | 2001 |
| Seat: |
Brussels , Belgium
|
| Home airport : | Brussels-Zaventem Airport |
| Number of employees: | approx. 600 (August 2001) |
| Fleet size: | 9 |
| Aims: | Europe , North America , Africa , Israel |
| City Bird ceased operations in 2001. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation. | |
City Bird SA (trading under the CityBird brand ) was a Belgian airline that operated scheduled and charter flights as well as air freight transport. The company also leased its aircraft to other airlines. The company ceased operations in 2001.
history
City Bird was founded on August 6, 1996 by Belgian entrepreneurs Victor Hasson and Georges Gutelman , who previously jointly ran Eurobelgian Airlines . The City Hotels SA chain , of which Victor Hasson was CEO, owned a 58% stake in City Bird . The company put a brand new McDonnell Douglas MD-11 into service on December 13, 1996 . The aircraft was initially used until March 1997 for the French charter airline Star Europe on flights from Paris to the Caribbean .
On March 27, 1997 City Bird opened its scheduled service from Brussels-Zaventem Airport with a flight to Mexico City . In addition, on March 30, 1997, scheduled connections to Orlando and Miami and on July 1, 1997 to San Francisco and Los Angeles were added. The airline Sabena acquired an 11.2% stake in the company in the autumn of 1997 and concluded a cooperation agreement with her. City Bird passengers were then able to use Sabena's European route network for connecting flights (see code sharing ). In the spring of 1998 City Bird took over two more McDonnell Douglas MD-11s that had been leased to Sabena on a long-term basis and were delivered brand new in their colors. Sabena started using the machines on May 1, 1998 on their long-haul routes to New York , Montreal and São Paulo .
On April 2, 1998 City Bird received the first of its three Boeing 767-300ERs , which were used on charter flights to the Caribbean on behalf of the tour operator C&N Touristic and were also temporarily leased to Condor , Luxair , Vietnam Airlines and Cameroon Airlines . From April 1999 the company used a Boeing 767 for six months in cooperation with the Congonese company Lignes Aériennes Congolaises (LAC) on scheduled flights between Brussels and Kinshasa . The airline Sabena , which operated this route in parallel, then sold the majority of its company shares and sued City Bird for breach of contract.
In the summer of 1999, cargo flights were started with two Airbus A300-600F . The machines were mainly used between Brussels and Tel Aviv . City Bird planned to operate two additional Boeing 747 freighters in 2000 , but could not do so. From the end of 1999 the company concentrated on the implementation of charter flights to the classic holiday regions on the Mediterranean . In January 2000, the first Boeing 737s were delivered, with which operations from the smaller Liège and Ostend airports became possible. In addition, the company stationed a Boeing 737-400 at the French airport in Lille in April 2001 and operated it under the City Bird France brand . An economical flight operation was not achieved, however.
City Bird closed the business year 2000 with losses of 62 million euros. In March 2001, Sabena returned her two leased McDonnell Douglas MD-11s to the company. At the same time, Air ALM canceled the lease for an MD-11 that City Bird had been using for the Caribbean airline between Amsterdam and Curaçao since December 2000 . Due to the lack of leasing income, the company's financial situation deteriorated increasingly. In July 2001 the company applied for bankruptcy protection . As a result, all long-haul flights were abandoned and the layoff of 200 employees was announced. The German Thomas Cook AG , which was planning the establishment of Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium at the time , initially showed interest in a takeover, but decided against it at the beginning of October. City Bird ceased operations on October 4, 2001 and filed for bankruptcy on the same day .
fleet
Fleet at the end of operations
At the time of the cessation of operations, the City Bird fleet consisted of two Airbus A300-600F (cargo planes) as well as four Boeing 737-400 and three Boeing 737-800.
Previously deployed aircraft
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Flight International, March 20, 1997 [1]
- ↑ Flight International, January 14, 1997 [2]
- ^ Leisure Airlines of Europe, K. Vomhof, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 2001
- ↑ SkyStef's Aviation Page, City Bird [3]
- ↑ Flight International, November 11, 1997 [4]
- ↑ Aircraft Registration Database, City Bird (Boeing 767 OO-CTA, OO-CTQ, OO-CTR) [5]
- ↑ Flight International, May 11, 1999 ( PDF )
- ↑ Flight International, April 24, 2000 [6]
- ↑ Flight International, April 17, 2000 [7]
- ↑ jp airline-fleets international, Edition 2000/01
- ↑ Flight International, August 27, 2001 [8]
- ↑ jp airline fleets-international, Edition 2002/03
