The company was founded on the
31st of March 1919 by Georges Nélis with the support of
King Albert I. It operated from the airfield at Haren, near Brussels,
and flew to London (Hounslow Heath Aerodrome and Croydon Airport),
Paris (Paris–Le Bourget Airport) and Amsterdam (Amsterdam
Airport Schiphol). Amongst the pilots of SNETA was Ivan Vasilyevich
Smirnov. Its initial fleet was made up of surplus airplanes from
the First World War. The company used a mix of British, French
and German planes. The first nine acquired airplanes were:
3 Breguet 14
3 De Havilland Airco DH.9
3 Rumpler C.IV.
Later the company also acquired
Farman F.60 Goliaths and Fokker D.VIIs. In 1921, the company
started operating in the Belgian Congo through its subsidiary
CENAC (Comité d' Etude pour la Navigation Aérienne
du Congo and later as Ligne Aérienne du Roi Albert) flying
to Matadi, Léopoldville and Stanleyville using the Lévy-Le
Pen. On the 27th of September 1921, a wooden hangar burned out,
destroying 7 of SNETA's 23 airplanes. By the 1st of June 1922,
enough information was gathered and all experimental flights
were suspended. This cleared the way to start up a real Belgian
commercial operator, SABENA, which came into being on the 23rd
of May 1923 and into which SNETA merged.
Fleet
Historical fleet
3x Bréguet 14
6x Airco de Havilland DH.9
5x Airco de Havilland DH.4
10x Rumpler C.IV
1x Luft-Verkehrs Gesellschaft LVG C.IV
6x Luft-Verkehrs Gesellschaft LVG C.VI
6x Farman F-60 Goliath
1x Ansaldo A.300-C
6x Blériot-SPAD S.33 |
