Delta Air Transport N.V. (abbreviated DAT) was a Belgian airline headquartered in Antwerp, Belgium, operating scheduled and chartered flights, mostly on short-haul routes. It flew to a multitude of regional European destinations on behalf of Sabena during the 1990s and early 2000s.
History
thumb|left|[[Douglas DC-3]]
thumb|left|[[Convair CV-440 Metropolitan udergoing scrapping]]
Delta Air Transport was founded in June 1966, by Frans Van den Bergh, to perform air taxi and charter flight services with an initial fleet of three Cessna aircraft (one each of the types Skymaster, 210 and 206). Flight operations started in the following year. These were followed by first scheduled flight from Antwerp to Amsterdam on behalf of KLM on September 19, 1967; for that purpose two Beechcraft Queen Air feederliners were acquired (some sources erroneously mention three of the type).
thumb|right|A [[Douglas DC-3 at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in June 1972 on a scheduled service from Antwerp Airport]]
In the following years operations grew when the larger Douglas DC-3, CV440 and DC-6 aircraft joined the fleet over the following years, allowing DAT to operate charter flights on behalf of KLM (which owned a 33.3% stake), Sabena, Crossair and BIAS. In 1973, the majority of the airline's stake was bought by Compagnie Maritime Belge. During 1974, a Boeing 720 was aircraft lease|leased, allowing DAT to offer worldwide charter flights under the Delta International brand, which soon turned out to be unsuccessful, though.
In 1986, Sabena acquired a 49% stake. Consequentially an increasing number of flights were operated on behalf of the Belgian flag airline henceforth (also adopting Sabena flight numbers), using a fleet of British Aerospace 146 aircraft, in favor of which other airliners were gradually phased out. DAT became a member of the European Regional Airlines Association in 1993. In 1996, Sabena bought the remaining KLM stake, and DAT became a wholly owned Sabena subsidiary, moved its headquarters from Antwerp to Brussels and was re-branded as DAT Belgian Regional Airline, offering low-cost flights too. Gradually, the livery of Sabena was applied to all DAT aircraft.
On 7 November 2001, Sabena collapsed due to financial difficulties. DAT could re-launch its operations on 10 November with a flight to Geneva, having received all of Sabena's slots at Brussels Airport and thus being able to maintain the successful European network. Freddy Van Gaever, its former CEO, planned to merge DAT with Virgin Express and add flights towards the United States using former Sabena aircraft. This is the reason why the new DAT Plus brand was adopted. Actually, DAT came under the umbrella of SN Airholding (the liquidator of Sabena), and in 2002 was re-organized under a new AOC. The activities continued for some years as just SN Brussels Airlines which five years later became Brussels Airlines after merging with Virgin Express. as well as a limited number of routes to the neighboring countries. During the 1990s and early 2000s, DAT was able to grow an extensive short-haul network, as more and more flights were operated on behalf of demising Sabena, eventually becoming the tenth largest regional airline of the continent, transporting more than 1.7 million passengers per year. During its height, the airline had nearly 800 employees, and served the following cities on a scheduled basis from its hub at Brussels Airport:
Austria
- Vienna
Bulgaria
- Sofia
Croatia
- Zagreb
Czech Republic
- Prague
Denmark
- Copenhagen
Finland
- Helsinki
France
- Bordeaux
- Paris
- Lyon
- Marseille
- Nice
- Strasbourg
- Toulouse
Germany
- Berlin
- Düsseldorf
- Frankfurt
- Hamburg
- Hanover
- Munich
- Stuttgart
Greece
- Athens
Hungary
- Budapest
Ireland
- Dublin
Italy
- Bologna
- Florence
- Milan
- Naples
- Rome
- Turin
- Venice
Luxemburg
- Luxembourg
Netherlands
- Amsterdam
Norway
- Oslo
Poland
- Warsaw
Portugal
- Lisbon
- Porto
Romania
- Bucharest
Spain
- Barcelona
- Bilbao
- Madrid
- Málaga
- Seville
- Valencia
Sweden
- Gothenburg
- Stockholm
Switzerland
- Basel
- Geneva
- Zürich
United Kingdom
- Birmingham
- Bristol
- Edinburgh
- Glasgow
- Leeds
- London
- Manchester
- Newcastle upon Tyne
Fleet
Over the years, Delta Air Transport operated the following aircraft types:
|2002
|-
|Cessna 206
|1966
|
|-
|Cessna 210
|1966
|
|-
|Cessna Skymaster
|1966
|
|-
|Convair CV-440
|1972
|1977
|-
|Dash 8-300
|2001
|2002
|-
|Douglas DC-3
|1968
|1972
|-
|Douglas DC-4
|
|
|-
|Douglas DC-6
|
|1978
|-
|Douglas DC-8
|1973
|1997
|-
|Fairchild Hiller FH-227
|1977
- On 2 June 1990 at 19:11 local time, a DAT Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia (registered OO-DTA) without any passengers collided with a Piper Aerostar during a low-pass manoeuvre at Antwerp International Airport, resulting in the crash of the Piper and the death of the four people on board. The two aircraft had been performing a close formation flight for aerial photographs of the DAT Embraer for advertising purposes.