Word: sabena
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...German airline Lufthansa is putting armed sky marshals on its flights. British Airways has abruptly taken away the fancy cutlery from business class so it won?t be used as fancy weaponry. And Sabena, Belgium?s perennially troubled airline, is offering "Fear of Flying" seminars to its nervous clientele. Amid the worst falloff in passenger traffic in a decade, European airlines are all scrambling to convince the traveling public that it?s still safe to fly in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in the United States...
...hard to guess which ones he might be talking about. Swissair, Sabena and Alitalia were all in bad financial shape before the attacks in the U.S. Even well-managed, profitable airlines have been flying by the seat of their pants in the months since the economic slump began. Analysts estimate that even a 3% drop in passenger traffic can make the difference between a profitable year and a stinker. Within 14 days of the attacks, at least 16,000 people working for European airlines were told they would soon lose their jobs...
...much for France. Then Corti moved on to Belgium, where he scored his biggest victory in last month's agreement with the Belgian government on funding for Sabena, the national airline that has had only one profitable year in its 40-year history. As with the French holdings, Swissair took a minority stake, 49.5%, in Sabena because as a non-E.U. company it was initially barred from having majority control. But it had agreed in January to raise its stake to 85% of Sabena, which posted losses last year of $307 million. Now Swissair is freed from that obligation...
...Though Swissair insists the payments it is making to get out of the three airline deals were already covered by provisions in the company's reports, analysts note that the firm remains a minority shareholder of Sabena and could be affected if the Belgian airline's recently announced restructuring plans are not successful. "Corti has certainly done well in managing to get out of obligations in France and Belgium," said Andrew Light, an airline analyst at Schroder Salomon Smith Barney in London. "He's bought himself some time...
...haven't worked. Virgin Drinks, the cola company, lost millions in recent years. Virgin Express, a Brussels-based discount airline that trades on the nasdaq for about $1 a share, down from more than $27 in 1998, has been hit by its dependence on connections with Belgium's beleaguered Sabena airline...