British Airways could have saved them, but there wasn’t enough time and Swissair was refusing the help somehow.
-Sabena went bankrupt because:
-Swissair didn’t pay enough the promised money
-Swissair had too much influence in the company’s behaviour and made them order the 34 Airbusses. The NG 737 would have been a much better choice. They actually needed only 15 to 20 new aircraft to add to the fleet. But nooooo, Swissair wanted fleet commonality.
-Sabena sold more than half of the shares to Swissair. After this was done, the Belgian government refused to give any more money to the airline. They did one last time after the sale, but it wasn’t that much.
-Of course, 11th september 2001.
-Bad management. Reutlinger nor Muller did anyting good. Only Christoph Muller, which I respect, tried to save it, but had an impossible task.
-In total, more than 11.000 people were fired. This was the beginning of the high unemployment level in Belgium, which is now improving again.

Tough I never flown wih them, I now miss the routes they used to fly to. There are connections to here, there, but not everywhere. However, SN Brussels Airlines is now doing a good job.

There are a lot more posters of this advertising campaign, but failed to get one in my room :).