Editing Sabena (section)

===2001: Bankruptcy===
[[File:Bae146.avrorj85.arp.750pix.jpg|thumb|SN Brussels Airlines [[BAe 146]] in the former Sabena livery at [[London Heathrow Airport]] in 2002.]]
After an airline recession and the effects on the airline industry of the [[September 11 attacks]] in 2001, all airlines that flew across the Atlantic suffered. Swissair had pledged to invest millions in Sabena but failed to do so, partly because the airline had financial problems itself, having filed for bankruptcy protection one month prior. Sabena filed for legal protection against its creditors on 3 October, and went into liquidation on 6 November 2001. [[Fred Chaffart]], chairman of the board of directors of Sabena, read a declaration on this day to explain the decision.

7 November 2001 was the final day of operations for Sabena. Flight 690 (operated by an [[Airbus A340-311]] registered as OO-SCZ) from [[Abidjan]], Ivory Coast and [[Cotonou]], Benin, was the last Sabena flight to land in Brussels.<ref>{{cite web |author=Osborn |first=Andrew |date=7 November 2001 |title=Belgian airline goes bust with loss of 12,000 jobs |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2001/nov/08/theairlineindustry.terrorismandtravel |access-date=17 March 2021 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> The flight had  266 passengers and eleven crew members.

A group of investors managed to take over [[Delta Air Transport]], one of Sabena's subsidiaries, and transformed it into [[SN Brussels Airlines]]. That airline merged with [[Virgin Express]] in 2006 to form a new company, [[Brussels Airlines]].

The [[Belgian Parliament]] formed a committee to investigate the reasons behind the bankruptcy of Sabena and the involvement of Switzerland's flag carrier. At the same time, the company's administrator investigated possible legal steps against Swissair, and its successors in interest [[Swiss International Air Lines]] and [[Lufthansa]].

In 2006, the Belgian government, a former major shareholder, filed criminal charges against the former Swissair management. The former Swissair management was condemned by the judges.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dhnet.be/infos/societe/article/340682/sabena-obtient-enfin-justice.html |title=Sabena finally gets justice - the judges felt that the demise of Sabena was a consequence of non-compliance by Swissair contractual obligations - DBNet report January 2011 accessed 26 December 2011 |publisher=Dhnet.be |date=2011-01-28 |access-date=2014-07-23}}</ref>

On 16 January 2007 the Belgian - Flemish news program ''Terzake'' reported that during the 1990s, several members of the board were paid large sums illegally through a Sabena affiliate in [[Bermuda]]. When Paul Reutlinger became the CEO of the company, he stopped the illegal payments. ''Terzake'' went on to state that this might explain why the Belgian board members remained quiet when it became apparent Swissair was exploiting Sabena and eventually drove the company into bankruptcy.

The reasons for the bankruptcy of Sabena are numerous. One of the direct causes was [[Swissair]] not living up to their contractual obligations and failing to inject necessary funds into the company. This was because at the time Swissair was having its own financial problems. In the so-called "Hotel Agreement", signed on July 17, 2001, Belgian prime minister [[Guy Verhofstadt]] met with Swissair boss [[Mario Corti (manager)|Mario Corti]], who agreed to inject €258&nbsp;million into Sabena, but the sum was never paid. The purchase of 34 new [[Airbus A320 family]] planes, imposed under Swissair's management, was a burden with which Sabena could not cope.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=2003-06-12 |title=Airbus's secret past |url=https://www.economist.com/special-report/2003/06/12/airbuss-secret-past |access-date=2018-12-28 |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |issn=0013-0613}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Gumbel|first=Peter|date=2002-10-20|title=The Last Days of Sabena|magazine=Time|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,366278,00.html|access-date=2018-12-28|issn=0040-781X}}</ref>

After the bankruptcy, a parliamentary commission in Belgium was established to investigate the demise of the airline. The Belgian politicians got a part of the blame; [[Rik Daems]], who, at the time, was Minister of Public Enterprises and Participations, Telecommunication and Middle Classes, received the most criticism due to his lack of effort. Swissair itself went bankrupt in October 2001 and was liquidated in March 2002.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=|last2=|date=2001-11-07|title=Sabena files for bankruptcy|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2001/nov/07/theairlineindustry.terrorismandtravel|access-date=2018-12-28|issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/sabena-bankrupt-as-its-last-flight-lands-1.402883|title=Sabena bankrupt as its last flight lands|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en|access-date=2018-12-28}}</ref>