Sabena, the Société Anonyme Belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation Aérienne, was founded in
1926 by King
Albert I as the belgian national airline. Sabena was the champion of
Europe-
Africa transport but offered transportation to about any destination on earth. On
November 7, 2001, Sabena was declared dead,
bankrupt. It had been bought and resold by
Air France, and
KLM. Neglecting final
stock holder Swissair and
plane terrorism were fatal to the 75 years old society.
It is survived by
Sobelair, the charter subcompany, DAT, regional carrier and
Sabena Technics, airplane maintenance. At least 5000 jobs are lost directly, with 100,000 possibly affected indirectly. That's about one percent of the
Belgian population. Sabena was one of the biggest employers in
Belgium. Today is a sad day for Belgium.
According to the joke, SABENA stands for "Such A Bad Experience, Never Again"