SkyStef's aviation page
|
|
SkyStef's aviation page |
European Air Transport
Taken at Brussels in July 1987, the sole pax Convair
580 wearing the full colors of EAT (Photo: Skystef) |
| Base: Brussels |
| IATA: QY |
| ICAO: BC, BCS |
| Website: dhl.com |
| Fleet of commercial fleet (all history): 2x Beech 65 (OO-IJP/OO-JPI, OO-NJP/OO-JPN) 10x Swearingen Merlin/Metro (OO-JPA, OO-JPI(2), OO-JPK, OO-JPN(2), OO-JPN(3), OO-JPY, OO-VGA, OO-VGC, OO-VGD of which one leased from Aspair (OO-LAW)), 11x Convair 580F (OO-DHB, OO-DHC, OO-DHD, OO-DHE, OO-DHF, OO-DHG, OO-DHH, OO-DHI, OO-DHJ, OO-DHL, OO-HUB) + 1x Convair 580 (OO-VGH) + 1x Convair 580 used for spares (N73165), 1x Casa 212 (OO-FKY), 16x B727F (OO-DHK, OO-DHM, OO-DHN, OO-DHO, OO-DHP, OO-DHQ, OO-DHR, OO-DHS, OO-DHT, OO-DHU, OO-DHV, OO-DHW, OO-DHX, OO-DHY, OO-DHZ, OO-DLB), 1x B737QC leased from Air Belgium (OO-ILK), 19x A300F (OO-DIB, OO-DIC, OO-DID, OO-DIF, OO-DIH, OO-DIJ, OO-DLC, OO-DLD, OO-DLE, OO-DLG, OO-DLI, OO-DLL, OO-DLR, OO-DLT, OO-DLU, OO-DLV, OO-DLW, OO-DLY, OO-DLZ), 15x B757PF (OO-DLJ, OO-DLK, OO-DLN, OO-DLO, OO-DLP, OO-DLQ, OO-DPB, OO-DPF, OO-DPI, OO-DPJ, OO-DPK, OO-DPL, OO-DPM, OO-DPN, OO-DPO) |
| History: European Air Transport (EAT) was formed on December 8 1971 by Paul Pirlot de Corbion and three other partners. Initially they provided air-taxi services and flying school activities, but in 1973 they became also a "Piper Flite-Centre" for Belgium. In March 1976 a Swearingen Metro was bought and a contract with SABENA was signed to operate commuter services to Eindhoven. This airframe OO-JPI was presented in full Sabena colors and started services one month later. The network was extended to Dusseldorf, Cologne and Luxembourg, and more Metro's/Merlin's were added. In 1978 they became also dealer for Mooney aircraft for the entire Benelux. Between 1980-1984 Metro/Merlin capacity was leased to British Caledonian on their Gatwick-Brussels route. On July 29 1985 they started nightly parcel schedules to Basle on behalf of DHL with two converted Metro's. During 1986 this evolved into a major contract with the (at that time) American courier for operating parcel services within Europe from main hub Brussels. In fact the Belgian company became 100% owned by the DHL group. More Metro's/Merlin's were added + one Casa 212 but soon all these airframes became too small and a dozen Convair 580 were bought, later upgraded to B727-100, B727-200 and A300. For a couple of years extra capacity was used in the form of B727s of Air Contactors and Express One. In the new millennium the noisy B727s were replaced by B757s. Besides their own fleet, some of the parcel flights within Europe were operated by foreign carriers like Air Atlanta Icelandic (B737), Atlantic Airlines (Electra, ATR42, An72 and ATP) and Swiftair (ATR42). The long haul sectors to Dayton, New York and Lagos were carried out by leasing DC10/MD11 capacity from World Airways, Gemini Air Cargo and DAS Air Cargo. EAT also used belly capacity on some of the scheduled pax carriers at Brussels. Besides the regular parcel flights, the company also undertook cargo (charter) flights, sometimes on behalf of third parties like Royal Air Maroc. On March 29-30 2008, DHL moved its main operational hub to Leipzig while Brussels would remain as a regional hub. After this move, DHL decided in January 2010 not to prolong EAT's AoC from March 31 2010 onwards and all their aircraft were transferred to Air Contractors of Ireland and newly formed European Air Transport Leipzig of Germany to fulfill the parcel duties, thus ending all flying activities with EAT which occured even a bit earlier, namely on March 26 2010. |
