FLYING THE A330 TO AFRICA. Operated by Birdy Airlines

This photo album is a private publication of BIRDY Airlines. 

150 copies were printed by Joh. Enschedé - October 2004

ABOUT THE PHOTO ALBUM

The majority of photographs was taken by people from BIRDY and somehow belongs to our common heritage. Other photographs have been obtained from various sources. The authors are mentioned next to their work and we thank them for their contribution.
This album is the BIRDY Family Album. It is a way to remember that we were privileged to work together and that we did it well.
Thank you for being such a great team, thank you for serving the company and its customer with excellence.

Capt. Peter S. VERMEIRE Flight Operations Manager & Chief Pilot
8 October 2004

Word from the Presidents

After the bankruptcy of Sabena in November 2001 in the aftermath of 9/11, our country was left without intercontinental flights operated by Belgian registered aircraft.
DAT became SN Brussels Airlines but the new company needed all its resources and energy to reclaim at least part of the former Sabena network.
BIRDY Airlines was created as a risk sharing partner to allow
SN Brussels Airlines to return to the African Continent as early as the spring of 2002.
Over a period of 31 months, BIRDY Airlines has flown over 7.750 flights on behalf of SN Brussels Airlines.
The three A330-300 aircraft in our fleet have logged more than 33.000 flight hours and transported hundreds of thousands of passengers to and from 14 African cities to Brussels in the heart of Europe.
With a team of 60 dedicated and highly motivated workers,
BIRDY Airlines has demonstrated that an air operation can be run safely and efficiently within a well defined budget.
This photo album is but a small tribute to the men and women who have made this operation a success.

Victor HASSON
CEO
Georges GUTELMAN CEO

From the Editor

Whose idea was it to publish a photo album? Was it Sonja's idea? Was it Christian or Frans or Valérie? I can't remember and it doesn't matter.
As always at BIRDY, it's been a team effort. Christian worked the logistics, Frans assembled data and wrote the storyboard at the end of the album, Valérie and others gathered photographs of everyone and everything associated with our two and a half years of operations. Stéphane joined the group and so did Geertrui. The other staff members gave us their support.
I assumed the responsibility of creating the pages of this album.
We looked through thousands of pictures already stored in our archives and asked colleagues and friends to contribute their best pictures.
Our shareholders sponsored the idea and provided the necessary funding to print the album.
So here it is: The story of BIRDY Airlines flying the A330 to Africa, in full colors.
The basic sequence of this album follows the alphabetical order of our 3-letter codes. Inside this sequence we have added pages related to activities and events in chronological order. The pages on the left side further illustrate and complete the story of BIRDY Airlines from its creation until October 2004.