Aviation International News senior correspondent Ian Goold has been involved in aerospace since 1964 and in aviation media for more than 40 years. He enjoyed a 20-year career at Flight International magazine, where he was latterly air-transport editor before turning freelance in 1993. A winner of the European Regions Airline Association Hank McGonagle award for excellence in aerospace journalism and a Royal Aeronautical Society Aerospace Journalist of the Year global&nbsp;award, he has edited or contributed to aerospace and aviation magazines, special publications, and websites in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America. Ian entered aerospace as an apprentice at the British Aircraft Corporation at Brooklands (Weybridge), where he worked on production and final assembly lines of the Vickers Super VC10, and BAC One-Eleven , and manufacture of Concorde major sub-assemblies. He subsequently graduated from the BAC Design Training School to work in the airframe structures drawing office (including design of international future projects, such as the Panavia Tornado multi-role combat aircraft) before joining Flight International in 1973. Apart from years of reading aircraft magazines and books, his first direct contact with aviation media had come during the early 1970s when he was involved at Brooklands with the Weybridge Man-powered Aircraft Group, which designed and built the tenth aircraft to fly under purely human power. As an aviation journalist, he has worked at more than&nbsp; 50 of the major biennial&nbsp;global and regional international aerospace industry shows at Le Bourget, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai (having missed attending only one "Farnborough" since 1960), plus innumerable NBAA, HAI, (U.S.) AOPA, and EBACE Conventions and ERA Assemblies. His favourite aircraft is the Hawker Hunter, of which – as a schoolboy – he heard hundreds make their first flights from Dunsfold, where also on September 24, 2013, he saw the penultimate landing of the VC10 (happily involving an example of which he had witnessed the maiden takeoff in 1970) a day before the last example made the design's final flight (unless, of course....).

Senior correspondent

Ian Goold

Belgian regional airline Delta Air Transport (DAT) moved closer to its goal of becoming the successor to the defunct Sabena Airlines late last month, after a commercial court in Brussels decided to postpone a bankruptcy ruling on DAT creditor Sabena Interservice Center (SIC). A former wholly owned subsidiary of Sabena, SIC must issue a recovery plan sufficient to warrant a definitive suspension of debt payments. The delay allowed a group of Belgian businessmen to continue negotiations to settle SIC’s creditor claims and acquire DAT.&nbsp; Although funded for operations at least until the end of this month, a business plan aimed at establishing it as a de facto replacement for the bankrupt flag carrier hinged on winning over Sabena creditors. 
Their support was necessary to obtain continued funding beyond a three-month respite gained when an emergency loan for Sabena had been transferred to DAT. A decision on more funding was expected at press time.
DAT had mounted a vigorous marketing campaign to attract passengers after Sabena’s demise in early November. To maintain a “national” airline, the government planned a smaller operation focusing on short- to medium-haul services run by DAT, whose pilot salaries averaged 34 percent less than those of Sabena.
Established in 1966, DAT had operated under partial or total state ownership within the Sabena group for 15 years, but had made money. In 2000, DAT carried 3.3 million of Sabena’s 10.9 million passengers.
Operating under an EC-approved $110 million emergency government loan, the regional subsidiary attempted last month to keep the Belgian flag flying while reorganizing operations under a European sky that is becoming increasingly competitive. Several other airlines, including VLM, British European, British Midland, Finnair and Virgin Express, increased Brussels flights immediately after Sabena failed. 
In November, 12 private Belgian companies agreed to invest $135 million alongside a further $40 million in regional-government aid to ensure DAT’s future. However, last month the region of Flanders withdrew its proposed contribution of 24.7 million Euros. &nbsp;
Under the reorganization plan, the DAT workforce was expected to grow from 900 (including 296 pilots) to about 2,650. DAT planned 104 flights a day to more than 30 European destinations with 12 Avro RJ100s, 14 RJ85s and six BAe 146-200s, in addition to eight ex-Sabena Airbus A319s and six A330s. It expected to carry six million passengers a year and break even next year. 
With few travelers in the aftermath of Sabena’s bankruptcy, DAT reported load factors of less than 40 percent in November, while the Belgian government continued to seek buyers for the reshaped business. Investors were expected to include Sabena creditors, which early last month declined to approve an initial business plan that would use funds from Sabena’s in-house bank.
Brussels-based Virgin Express has expressed interest in assuming DAT’s operations after the government loan runs out next month. The low-fare operator was interested in taking over routes to Barcelona, Copenhagen, Milan and Nice. 
Virgin Express had flown Belgian charter flights following the bankruptcy of nonscheduled operator CityBird in early October, but was financially exposed by the failure of Sabena, from which it derived 39 percent of its revenues through code shares and block space on services to London, Rome and Barcelona.

DAT gets reprieve as investors move to settle Sabena debts

Belgian regional airline Delta Air Transport (DAT) moved closer to its goal of becoming the successor to the defunct Sabena Airlines late last month, after

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