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Air Belgium (2)


Taken at Brussels, an A340-300 (OO-ABD) of Air Belgium is wearing the full color scheme. (Photo: Skystef)

 

Base: Charleroi, Brussels
IATA: KF
ICAO: ABB
Website: airbelgium.com
Fleet: 2 A330-200F (OE-LAJ, OE-LAL), 2x B747-8F (OE-LFC, OE-LFD) + 1x history (OE-LFI), 2x A330-200 history (OE-LAC, OE-LCL), 4x A330-200F history (OO-AIR, OO-CGM, OO-CMA, OO-SEA), 2x A330-900 history (OO-ABF, OO-ABG), 4x A340 history (OO-ABA, OO-ABB, OO-ABD, OO-ABE)
History: formed on February 18 2016 by Niky Terzakis with aid of some business partners of Belgium & Hong Kong, it was set up to conduct pax flights to Asia, initially from Brussels Airport, but later it changed to Charleroi airport which is labelled as Brussels South airport. The first two A340's on lease from Airbus were delivered at Brussels Airport respectively on March 1 and 2 2018 receiving their markings a couple of weeks later. Its AoC was granted a few weeks later on March 13 and the first flight for a third party "Surinam Airways" tookoff from Amsterdam to Paramaribo (and vice versa) on March 29 2018. After a delay of six weeks their own operations started on June 6 with scheduled flights to Hong Kong. These were due to rather poor results again suspended on October 1 2018, afterwards solely concentrating on ACMI charter work. But, as a second attempt in the long haul market, on December 7 2019 regular services on their own behalf were started to Guadeloupe and Martinique. In January 2021 a contract was signed with French shipment group "CMA CGM" to operate four A330 freighters from Liege which started on March 13 2021 with a flight to Chicago. In December 2021 it was announced they would operate also with B747-8F's and a month later this materialised with aid of the Chinese Hongyuan Group. On June 1 2022 the French shipment group received their own AoC to operate cargo flights which resulted that the A330-200F with their markings went to them ending the link with Air Belgium. Meanwhile some new long haul pax destinations started in July 2022 to Curacao (from Brussels South but switching in December 2022 from Brussels Airport), from Brussels Airport to Johannesburg (September 2022) and from Brussels Airport to Mauritius (October 2022). On September 18 2023 it was announced that all own scheduled pax operations would cease after October 3 2023, this due to the continueing losses, with only the ACMI work surviving and concentrating on the cargo business. Protection against bankruptcy was also granted a few times in 2024 for a full reorganization and ultimate in December of the same year found a new buyer in form of a Dutch investor PESO Aviation Management and British investor Air One Holding International. The pax division was not included in the deal and ceased to exist, only the cargo business remains active and the company will be rebranded to Air One Belgium by April 2025, based at Brussels. 

Belgian Airlines