According to the Belgian newspaper Le Soir Sabena has lost around 322 billion Euro last year. These figures do not include yet the higher fuel prices the the consequences of the end of the contract with City Bird. The figures are released in the near future.
sndp

322 billion sounds a little bit high, I think. 322 million would be more realistic.

322 million Euro indeed. I was confused because of the fact that it is 12 billion BEF. Excuse me.
sndp

Excusse my but this number is everything included?
City-bird,benzin,bluesky plan,etc.....
Ciao

I thought it would be much more.

So it is not THAT bad for Sabena!

All right, I will give the numbers again, now in Belgian Francs, maybe I was wrong. Know that 1 Euro is the same as almost 41 BEF.

At the moment Bleu sky was launched, a loss of 7 billion BEF was expected for Sabena in 2000 and 15 billion BEF in 2001 without any measurements taken. It now seems that the loss for 2000 is 13 Billion BEF, more than originally estimated. As I understood out of the newspaper article, this does NOT include higher fuel prices and the end of the contract with City Bird.
sndp

that makes about 3.22 billion Euro if I am not mistaken.

OUCH

I repeat EVERYTHING included???????
CIaoooooo

Also Luxair is troubeling at the moment. KLM cannot find a right partner and so it would be a great idea to merge KLM, Sabena and Luxair within a new company named "Benelux Airways". Three hubs in Amsterdam, Brussels and Luxembourg. I shall make a new topic.

Aussie wrote:
that makes about 3.22 billion Euro if I am not mistaken.
OUCH
-----------------------------------------------

You are mistaken. 12 billion BEF = 322 million EUR (or just under 300 million USD).
I see that there are not many bookkeepers on this tread with all that decimal point confusion.
Best regards, Preben Norholm

My turn:

12 Billion BEF = 297.5 Million EUR = 265 Million USD
13 Billion BEF = 322 Million EUR = 287.8 Million USD

Taken from:

http://www.xe.net/ucc/

Right Virgin 744. And unfortunately the loss was also 13 (not 12) billion BEF - I hit the wrong key. Good thing that I'm not a bookkeeper either.  
Best regards, Preben Norholm

I think it is due to their huge number of aircraft and also due to the slowdown of Global Economy. Also, they did leave some very profitable routes such as to Karachi, Pakistan and other large cities.

They wouldn't have left Karachi if it was profitable

Help????
SABENA never went to Karachy.
Ciao.

I know they never went to Karachi but I am saying that it is a profitable route for every airline. I believe the Sabena belongs to some European nation (Norwegian) and all of them are served by PIA which yields high profits.

'I believe the Sabena belongs to some European nation (Norwegian)...'

Excuse me? When did Sabena become the Norwegian national carrier? FYI: Sabena is the national carrier of Belgium...

I believe SN killed JFK and has Elvis hidden away in one of their hangars, alive and well.
Really!

Have a good one (and maybe pick another user name...?),

TriStar.

Sabena loss of around $300million...
Big whoop! Pan Am could do that in a week, and Carn Icahn in a day, probably.

Just joking before y'all jump down my throat.

To say 'Karachi is profitable for every airline' is misleading. I find it hard to believe that there are enough people in every major city in the whole world with major airline service that would wish to fly non-stop to Karachi.

FLY DELTA JETS and sail UNITED STATES LINES



N 8 6 3 D A

hi
maybe SN problem is too many exotic destinations flying out of BRU, like Madras (india) or DFW (though co-op with AA) or NRT???? is the market there? belgium has only 10M inhabitants and nearly every other euro-airline fly to these destinations either....plus SN doesn't offer real bargain fees so why should we fly them better than AF,BA,LH,KL.....all of their hubs are within a 500km circle...hey competition is tough

Why should they start up benelux airways, i can imagine KLM doesn't wanna work with that  airline,
not very attractive