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| Founded | 1966 (1966) | ||||||
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| Commenced operations | 19 September 1967 (1967-09-19) | ||||||
| Ceased operations | February 2002 (2002-02) (re-organized asSN Brussels Airlines) | ||||||
| Hubs | Antwerp International Airport | ||||||
| Focus cities | Brussels Airport | ||||||
| Parent company |
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| Headquarters | Antwerp | ||||||
Delta Air Transport (abbreviatedDAT) was aBelgianregional airline headquartered inAntwerp, Belgium, operating scheduled and chartered flights, mostly on short-haul routes. It served a multitude of regional European destinations on behalf ofSabena during the 1990s and early 2000s.
Delta Air Transport was founded in 1966, by Frans Van den Bergh, as a provider forair taxi and charter flight services with an initial fleet of threeCessna aircraft (one each of the typesSkymaster,210 and206). DAT's first scheduled flight from Antwerp toAmsterdam on behalf ofKLM took place on 19 September 1967; for that purpose twoBeechcraft Queen Air feederliners had been acquired (some sources erroneously mention three of the type).[1][2]
Operations grew when the largerDouglas DC-3,CV440 andDC-6 joined the fleet over the following years, allowing DAT to operate charter flights on behalf of KLM (which owned a 33.3 percent stake in DAT),Sabena,Crossair andBIAS. In 1973, the majority of the airline's stake was bought byCompagnie Maritime Belge.[3] During 1974, aBoeing 720 wasleased, allowing DAT to offer worldwide charter flights under theDelta International branding,[4] which soon turned out to be unsuccessful, though.[5]
In 1986, Sabena acquired a 49 percent stake in DAT, and an increasing number of flights were operated on behalf of the Belgian national airline henceforth[6] (also adopting theairline codes of Sabena), using a fleet ofBritish Aerospace 146 aircraft, in favor of which other airliners were gradually phased out. DAT became a member of theEuropean Regional Airlines Association in 1993.[7] In 1996, Sabena bought the remaining KLM stake, thus DAT became a wholly owned Sabena subsidiary, moved its headquarters from Antwerp toBrussels[8] and was re-branded asDAT Belgian Regional Airline, offeringlow-cost flights. Gradually, the livery of Sabena was applied to all DAT aircraft.
On 1 November 2001, Sabena collapsed due to financial difficulties. DAT could re-launch its operations on 10 November with a flight toGeneva,[9] having received all of Sabena'sslots at Brussels Airport and thus being able to maintain the successful European network.[10]Freddy Van Gaever, its formerCEO, planned to merge DAT withVirgin Express and add flights to the United States using former Sabena aircraft, which was why the newDAT Plus branding was adopted.[11][12] Actually, DAT came under the umbrella ofSN Airholding (theliquidator of Sabena) in 2002, and was re-organized under a newAOC asSN Brussels Airlines, which later becameBrussels Airlines after indeed merging with Virgin Express, today'sflag carrier of the country.[5]
In its early years, Delta Air Transport offered up to 4 daily scheduled flights between its then base atAntwerp Airport andAmsterdam Airport Schiphol on behalf of KLM (the contract lasted until 1997, when DAT had become a wholly owned Sabena subsidiary),[13] as well as a limited number of routes to the neighboring countries. During the 1990s and early 2000s, DAT was able to grow an extensive short-haul network, as more and more flights were operated on behalf of demising Sabena, eventually becoming the tenth largest regional airline of the continent, transporting more than 1.7 million passengers per year.[14] During its height, the airline had nearly 800 employees,[15] and served the following cities on a scheduled basis from itshub atBrussels Airport:[16][17][18][19]
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Over the years, Delta Air Transport operated the following aircraft types:[5][20]
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| Aircraft | Introduced | Retired |
|---|---|---|
| Aérospatiale N 262 | 1976 | |
| Beechcraft Queen Air | 1967 | |
| Boeing 720 | 1974 | 1975 |
| British Aerospace 146 (various versions) | 1989[21] | 2002 |
| Cessna 206 | 1966 | |
| Cessna 210 | 1966 | |
| Cessna Skymaster | 1966 | |
| Convair CV-440 | 1972 | 1977[22] |
| Dash 8-300 | 2001 | 2002 |
| Douglas DC-3 | 1968 | 1972 |
| Douglas DC-4 | ||
| Douglas DC-6 | 1978 | |
| Douglas DC-8 | 1973[4] | |
| Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia | 1988[23] | 1997 |
| Fairchild Hiller FH-227 | 1977[22] | |
| Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner | ||
| Fokker F28 Fellowship | 1997 |
