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Sabena began operations on the
23rd of May 1923 as the national carrier of Belgium. The airline
was created by the Belgian government after their predecessor
SNETA (Syndicat national pour l'étude des transports aériens)
- formed in 1919 to pioneer commercial aviation in Belgium -
ceased operations. Sabena operated its first commercial flight
from Brussels to London (UK) on the 1st of July 1923, via Ostend.
Services to Rotterdam (Netherlands) and Strasbourg (France) were
launched on the 1st of April 1924. The Strasbourg service was
extended to Basle (Switzerland) on the 10th of June 1924. Amsterdam
(Netherlands) was added on the 1st of September 1924, and Hamburg
(Germany) followed on the 1st of May 1929 via Antwerp, Düsseldorf,
and Essen.In Europe, Sabena opened services to Copenhagen and
Malmö in 1931 and a route to Berlin was initiated in 1932.
The mainstay pre-war airliner that Sabena used in Europe was
the successful Junkers Ju-52/3m airliner. The airline's pre-war
routes covered almost 6,000 km within Europe. While the Brussels
Haren airport was Sabena's main base, the company also operated
services from other Belgian airports, and had a domestic network
that was mainly used by businessmen who wanted to be in their
coastal villas for the weekend. In 1938, the airline purchased
the new Savoia-Marchetti SM.83, a development of the S.M. 73
with a speed of 435 km/h (270 mph), although it flew services
at a cruising speed of about 400 km/h (250 mph). At the outbreak
of World War II in 1939, Sabena 's fleet totalled 18 aircraft.
Their mainstay fleet type was the Savoia-Marchetti SM.73 airliner
(they had 11 of the type) and the Junkers Ju-52/3m airliner (they
had five). Sabena also had just taken delivery of two Douglas
DC-3s. During the war the airline managed to maintain their Belgian
Congo routes, but all European services ceased. After the war,
in 1946 Sabena resumed operating a network of intra-European
scheduled services. The fleet initially consisted mainly of Douglas
C47's. There were thousands of surplus C47's (the military variant
of the old DC-3) available to help airlines restart operations
after the war. The airline now flew under the name of SABENA
- Belgian World Airlines. Sabena started their first transatlantic
route to New York City on 4 June 1946, initially using unpressurised
Douglas DC-4 airliners which were augmented and later replaced
by Douglas DC-6Bs. The DC-4s, followed by the DC-6s, also restarted
the airline's traditional route to the Belgian Congo. Sabena
was the first airline to introduce transatlantic schedules from
the north of England, when its DC6B OO-CTH inaugurated their
Brussels-Manchester-New York route on the 28th of October 1953.
The Convair 240 was introduced in 1949 to partially replace the
DC-3s that until then had flown most European services. As of
1956, improved Convair 440 "Metropolitan" twins began
replacing the Convair 240 twins and were used successfully well
into the 1960s between European regional destinations. In 1957,
the long-range Douglas DC-7C was introduced for long-haul routes
but this plane would begin to be supplanted after only three
years by the jet age. It remained in service on the transatlantic
route until 1962. On 3 June 1954, a Yugoslav Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich
MiG-15 (NATO reporting name "Fagot") attacked a Sabena-operated
Douglas DC-3 on a cargo flight from the United Kingdom to Yugoslavia,
killing the radio operator and wounding both the captain and
engineer. Co-pilot Douglas Wilson managed to land in Austria
but the plane suffered significant damage. For the 1958 world
exposition in Brussels, Sabena leased two Lockheed Super Constellations
from Seaboard World Airlines, using them mainly on transatlantic
routes. In the same period, there were experiments with helicopter
passenger service using Sikorsky S-58 aircraft from Brussels
to Antwerp, Rotterdam, Eindhoven and the Paris heliport at Issy-les-Moulineaux. |
