Sobelair

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Sobelair
Sobelair Boeing 737-400
IATA code : Q7
ICAO code : SLR
Call sign : SOBELAIR
Founding: 1946
Operation stopped: 2004
Seat: Brussels , BelgiumBelgiumBelgium 
Home airport : Brussels-Zaventem Airport
Number of employees: 450
Fleet size: 11
Aims: international charter flights
Sobelair ceased operations in 2004. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation.

Sobelair ( Société Belge de Transports par Air SA ) was a Belgian charter airline and from 1949 to 2001 a subsidiary of the Belgian airline Sabena . After the bankruptcy of the airline Sabena , Sobelair remained as an independent company. Flight operations ceased in 2004.

history

1946 to 1970

In the mid-1960s, Sobelair's fleet consisted of just one Douglas DC-6

Sobelair was founded on July 30, 1946 under the name Société d'Etude et de Transports Aériens ( SETA ) by former employees of Sabena and private investors. The company's first aircraft was a Douglas DC-3 . Operations began on October 15, 1946 with a cargo flight from Nice to Brussels via Paris . On November 12, 1946, the company was renamed Société Belge de Transports par Air ( Sobelair ). After beginning in 1947. Investors from the colony Belgian Congo had shares in the Company, directed Sobelair in the same year an over Cairo run scheduled flight between Brussels and Elisabethville one that was flown initially with airplanes of the type Douglas DC-third At the same time, Sobelair was the first European airline to open a scheduled connection to Addis Ababa after the Second World War . The state airline Sabena began to acquire company shares in 1948 and from 1949 had a 72% majority stake in Sobelair . After the takeover, the airline continued to exist as an independent subsidiary of Sabena . The company first used a Douglas DC-4 on its long-haul routes in 1954 . From 1957 Sobelair also carried out regional liner services within the Belgian Congo colony with Cessna 310 aircraft . After the Republic of the Congo gained its independence, the inner-African route network was ceded to the newly founded Air Congo in the summer of 1961 . In April 1962, the company also discontinued the long-haul connection to the Congo. Sobelair then started tourist charter flights from Brussels to the Mediterranean region with a Douglas DC-6 . In addition, from 1968 the company operated a Fokker F-27 on behalf of Sabena on their regional network.

1971 to 1999

The company's first jet aircraft was a Sud Aviation Caravelle VI-N , which was acquired by Sabena in March 1971 . In early 1973 the company operated five aircraft of this type. In 1974, Sobelair leased two Boeing 707-300s from the parent company on a long-term basis , which were used on charter flights to Montevideo , Santiago de Chile , Mauritius and the Caribbean . The effects of the first oil crisis led to the bankruptcy of several tour operators in the mid-1970s and a significant drop in booking numbers. As a result, the size of the fleet was reduced. In 1976, the company's three remaining aircraft were painted in Sabena colors and were mainly used for these on scheduled services. The renewed demand for package tours led in the summer of 1978 to Sobelair operating charter flights again under its own name. In the following year the company used two Boeing 737-200s and six Boeing 707s, two of them in the colors of the Sabena . At the same time, the company began to react increasingly to seasonal fluctuations in demand by renting additional aircraft during the summer season and leasing its own aircraft to other airlines in winter. In the 1980s, Sobelair gradually decommissioned its Boeing 707 aircraft and gave up the last long-haul connections in 1986. At the same time, the fleet was modernized with Boeing 737-300 (from 1987) and Boeing 737-400 (from 1990) machines .

A Boeing 737-200 of the Sobelair in the painting of the 1990s

In 1991 Sobelair secured a minority stake in the Belgian tour operator Sun International and also took a 35 percent stake in its airline Air Belgium . In the following year, the company carried 914,938 passengers with a fleet of eight aircraft. After the liberalization of aviation law in the European Union , the company stationed some aircraft in Spain and Italy in 1993 and used them on charter flights within the EU internal market . After the delivery of the first Boeing 767 , long-haul flights were again operated from July 2, 1994, initially to Puerto Plata . From autumn 1994 Mombasa , Bangkok and Phuket were added as further long-distance destinations. In 1995 Sobelair carried 1.2 million passengers and operated 75 percent of all Belgian charter flights. After taking over a second Boeing 767, from July 1996 charter flights from Zurich via Brussels to San Francisco were also carried out in cooperation with the Swiss airline BalairCTA , whose parent company Swissair had acquired a stake in Sabena in 1995 .

2000 to 2004

In November 2001, the parent company, Sabena, filed for bankruptcy . Sobelair could be removed from the bankruptcy estate and continue charter flight operations. Your most important customer at the time was the tour operator Jetair , a Belgian subsidiary of Preussag AG ( TUI ), which had 90 percent of its flights sold by Sobelair . In search of new investors, negotiations with Preussag AG were held from the end of 2001 , but these were broken off in February 2002 without any result. In April 2002 the businessman Aldo Vastapana announced the takeover of Sobelair by his Belgian World Airlines group, which also owned shares in the airline SN Brussels and in Brussels-Zaventem airport . Negotiations were successfully concluded in June 2002 after the unions agreed to cut wages and reduce aircraft leasing rates. Under the new owner, Sobelair started using a Boeing 767 on three weekly scheduled flights to Johannesburg from November 25, 2002, in addition to its charter services, but these were discontinued in July 2003 due to insufficient capacity utilization. In the course of 2003, the company's economic situation deteriorated considerably. In addition, the management resigned in November 2003 after differences with the owner. At the same time, negotiations were held again with the TUI group , which was now planning to set up its own Belgian charter airline. Sobelair applied for bankruptcy protection in order to conclude the negotiations with TUI . However, the commercial court in Brussels rejected the application and declared the company insolvent on January 19, 2004. Flight operations ceased on the same day.

Incidents

One with hush kit retrofitted Boeing 707-300 sat Sobelair to 1989 a
  • On April 22, 1960, a Douglas DC-4 ( aircraft registration number OO-SBL ) was flown against a mountain in poor visibility during the approach to Bunia ( Congo ). All 35 inmates were killed.
  • On December 20, 1970, a Douglas DC-6 B ( OO-CTL ) was badly damaged when landing in Málaga because the left landing gear could not be extended. The machine had to be written off as a total loss. People were not injured.
  • On March 29, 1981, a Boeing 707-300 ( OO-SJA ) returned to Brussels shortly after take-off due to an engine fire, without having time to drain the kerosene . After landing, the crew braked the aircraft, which was too heavy, by steering it off the runway. The machine was written off as a total loss. The 118 inmates were uninjured.

fleet

See also

Web links

Commons : Sobelair  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. SkyStef's Aviation Page, Sobelair [1]
  2. a b c d e Leisure Airlines of Europe, K. Vomhof, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 2001
  3. Flight International, April 17, 1959, p. 553 [2]
  4. Flight International, May 2, 1963, p. 629 [3]
  5. jp aircraft markings 70
  6. jp aircraft markings 73
  7. jp airline-fleets, Edition 77
  8. jp airline-fleets international, Edition 79
  9. jp airline-fleets international Edition 90/91
  10. Flightglobal, September 26, 2000 [4]
  11. Handelsblatt, February 25, 2002 [5]
  12. Flight International, April 22, 2002 [6]
  13. Flight International, January 20, 2003 [7]
  14. Handelsblatt, January 19, 2004 [8]
  15. Flight International, February 2, 2004 [9]
  16. ^ Accident report DC-4 OO-SBL , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 12, 2018.
  17. Aviation Safety Network, December 20, 1970 [10]
  18. ^ Accident report Caravelle VI-N OO-SRD , Aviation Safety Network (English), accessed on December 12, 2018.
  19. Aviation Safety Network, March 29, 1981 [11]
  20. jp airline-fleets international, various issues