Société Belge des Transports par Air SA, known by its short form Sobelair, was a Belgian charter airline 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.

History

thumb|right|[[Douglas DC-6.]]

thumb|right|A [[Sud Aviation SE-210 Caravelle at Hannover Airport in 1972.]]

thumb|right|A [[Boeing 737 Classic|Boeing 737-300 in 1987.]]

thumb|right|A [[Boeing 707s at Faro Airport in 1989.]]

thumb|right|A [[Boeing 737-300 in SABENA style colours.]]

thumb|A [[Boeing 767-300 at Brussels Airport in 2001, featuring the last corporate livery.]]

Sobelair was founded as a charter airline on 30 July 1946, originally as Société d'Etude et de Transports Aériens (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% 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.

Fleet

Over the nearly 60 years of its existence, Sobelair operated the following aircraft types:

  • On 20 December 1970, a Sobelair Douglas DC-6 (registered OO-CTL) was damaged beyond repair when it ran off the runway at Málaga Airport. The cargo flight with seven occupants had had to perform an emergency landing at the airport in bad weather conditions because the left main landing gear could not be extended due to a hydraulic problem.
  • On 29 March 1981, an engine fire occurred with a Sobelair Boeing 707 (registered OO-SJA) shortly after take-off from Brussels Airport. The pilots returned to the airport and had to execute an emergency landing. As there had not been time to dump fuel, the airplane was too heavy, and was deliberately steered off the runway in order not to overshoot it, during which it suffered extensive damage. The 109 passengers and eight crew members survived the accident.

References

Further reading

  • Sobelair, Air Pictorial magazine, April 1975
  • SOBELAIR 1946-1996 - 50 ans (in French language), SOBELAIR, Brussels, 1996
  • Official website (archived)
  • Sobelair aircraft