Africa Network: Sabena vs Brussels Airlines

[BrightCedars]

I'm trying to recollect all the destinations that were served by Sabena in Africa (sub-Sahara) in the 90's until the final days to compare the network with that of contemporary Brussels Airlines, and outline the potential destinations.

Here's the list of Sabena's destinations during the 90's, I may miss a few so please do let me know:

1. Abidjan
2. Accra
3. Bamako
4. Bangui
5. Banjul
6. Brazzaville
7. Bujumbura
8. Conakry
9. Cotonou
10. Dakar
11. Douala
12. Entebbe
13. Freetown
14. Johannesburg
15. Kano
16. Kigali
17. Kinshasa
18. Lagos
19. Libreville
20. Lome
21. Luanda
22. Monrovia
23. Nairobi
24. Niamey
25. Nouakchott
26. Ouagadoudou
27. Yaounde
28. Addis Ababa



Those in bold are currently covered by Brussels Airlines. They represent only 14 out of the 27 listed. A 28th option is Addis Ababa currently operated in code-share with Ethiopian and not served by Sabena during the 90's as far as I'm aware.

Which destinations are the most likely to be picked up by SN if they started expanding on that continent again? They are currently deploying 4 jets to Africa and Sabena was then deploying 5-6 aircraft on the continent. Air France is nowadays operating an impressive fleet to Africa.

I'm pretty sure Johannesburg would remain out of the cards and be operated in cooperation with South African or Lufthansa should Brussels Airlines join Star Alliance, but what about the others?

All input welcome and appreciated.

[Vexje]

Sabena also used to fly Dar Es Salaam (at least in the late sixties), but don't know till when they operated

[sn-remember]

You're right about DAR (you may add Kilimanjaro that was served for a short while in D10 and Mombasa for a season with SNBrussels)
To my knowledge (but I might be wrong if before the 60ies) SN never served Nouakchott, Bangui or (oddly) Accra

To answer the question :
I would rank high: Accra, Lomé, DarEssalam, Brazzaville, Lagos
Possibly : Cotonou, Libreville
Not ruling out : Bamako.

[jan_olieslagers]

From an old Sabena schedule brochure (summer 1984):

kigali via either jeddah or nairobi or athens+bujumbura,
some continued to bujumbura/entebbe or kilimanjaro/dar es salaam
the brussels-jeddah-kigali continuing to kinshasa
all flights by D10
also a weekly D10 BRU-KIN-JNB and another BRU-ATH-KIN-JNB
weekly 310 Brussels-Kano-Douala, more D10's on brussels-lagos-libreville-KIN,
brussels-kano-kinshasa, brussels-lagos-brazza-kinshasa*,
310's again to conakry,dakar, abidjan,monrovia.

(*brazza-kinshasa: they counted 25 minutes for a hop across the river - more time taxiing than airborne I should reckon!)

[BrightCedars]

I never knew about Sabena flying to JED, that's an interesting finding! Thanks...

Now that I looked at the map on GCM, was that due to an embargo to overfly some/many African nations?

[jan_olieslagers]

Sabena also used to fly Dar Es Salaam (at least in the late sixties), but don't know till when they operated

As I said, the service is still mentioned in the summer 1984 timetable:
SN499, D10 departing on Friday evening, codeshare with NR on the Brussels-Kigali part,
Brussels-Nairobi-Kigali, continued as SN479 to Kilimanjaro-Dar-Es-Salaam,

The return flight is mentioned as SN479 from
Kilimanjaro to Dar-Es-Salaam, then SN480 to Kigali,
then SN500 Kigali-Nairobi-Brussels. (arrival Sunday morning).

[Homo Aeroportus]

I never knew about Sabena flying to JED, that's an interesting finding! Thanks...

I remember also a BRU-CAI-JED-CAI-BRU with A310 in the mid-80's.

The outbound flight was leaving mid afternoon down to CAI, continuing to JED, back to CAI around midnight where the crew had a 3-day stop over before flying back on Thursday STD around 01:00.

Though news for the guys coming from JED and discovering that they had to share their 3 seats with those coming on board at CAI.

Aaahh. These were the days !

[Kabila]

I never knew about Sabena flying to JED, that's an interesting finding! Thanks...

That's correct, as a kid I remember boarding a Sabena DC10 fligth in Bujumbura and fly on to Kigali-Entebbe-Jeddah-Athens-Brussels. The total trip lasted more than 16 hours! The year must have been 1983 or 1984.

We were forced to deplane at Kigali and stay in a small non-airconditoned transit hall (local regulations), but at all the other stops we had to stay inside the plane.

Sabena had definitely traffic rights between many of those those points, because I remember people deplaning and boarding at all intermediate stops (even in Jeddah a few people came on). I had an old Greek guy sitting next to me between Entebbe and Athens.

I still remember that flight as if it was yesterday. It seemed it would never come to an end. But some passengers had even to endure a longer trip than me, because the plane originated in Kinshasa!. So their total travelling time must have been easily about 20 hours.

Nowadays, you can't imagine that any airline would operate such a route, but in the 80's it was very common.

Those were the days...

[Kabila]

To my knowledge (but I might be wrong if before the 60ies) SN never served Nouakchott

Well, unfortuantely they did serve it a lot later than the 60's. They even did it for 1 or 2 years before they went bankrupt. So it must have been 1999 or 2000. I think they had 2 flights a week (in a combination flight with Dakar or Banjul, A330)

Other cities they once served in Africa:
- Sal (Cabo Verde), via either Dakar or Banjul. It lasted only for a few months, because the loads were terrible. With A330.
- Harrare (via Bujumbura) in the beginning of the 80's. With DC10.

[jan_olieslagers]

To my knowledge (but I might be wrong if before the 60ies) SN never served Nouakchott

Well, unfortuantely they did serve it a lot later than the 60's. They even did it for 1 or 2 years before they went bankrupt. So it must have been 1999 or 2000. I think they had 2 flights a week (in a combination flight with Dakar or Banjul, A330)

No mention of Nouakchott either in winter 1998-1999 nor in summer 1999 - so it must have been a shortlived service indeed.