Sobelair
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| Founded | 30 July 1946 | ||||||
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| Commenced operations | 15 October 1946 | ||||||
| Ceased operations | 19 January 2004 | ||||||
| Operating bases | Brussels Airport | ||||||
| Parent company |
Sabena (1949-2001) SN Brussels Airlines (2003-2004) |
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Société Belge des Transports par Air SA, known by its short form Sobelair, was a Belgian airline from that operated from 1946 to 2004. It was headquartered in Brussels (later in Zaventem) and operated mostly non-scheduled passenger and cargo flights out of Brussels Airport.
Sobelair was founded as a charter airline on 30 July 1946, originally (only during the initial months) known as Société d'Etude et de Transports Aériens, abbreviated SETA. The first revenue flight using a Douglas DC-3 aircraft, which took place on 15 October of that year, was a flowers transport to Nice via Paris. In 1947, scheduled flights from Brussels to Elisabethville in Belgian Congo were launched on behalf of several companies in the Belgian colony, which held the majority of the stakes in the company. In 1949, these shares were acquired by Belgian flag carrier Sabena, which thus owned 72.29 percent in Sobelair.
When Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville) was founded as an independent state in the former Belgian Congo, Sobelair ceased its African service, and concentrated on offering chartered holiday flights to the Mediterranean instead, as well as (between 1957 and 1962) domestic routes using small Cessna 310 airplanes.
Sobelair joined the jet age in 1971, when the first Caravelle was acquired second-hand from Sabena. Over the following years, the fleet was further modernized with Boeing 707 aircraft, which stayed until 1981. By then, Sobelair operated a fleet composed exclusively of smaller Boeing 737 airliners. Long haul flights were relaunched only in 1994, using a newly bought Boeing 767-300.
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