CityBird S.A. was an

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers or freight (cargo). Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines ...

founded in 1996 and based in Building 117D,

Melsbroek Air Base Melsbroek Air Base is a Belgian Air Component facility in Steenokkerzeel, northeast of Brussels, the capital of Belgium. It is located on the northern side of Brussels Airport, with which it shares runways and ground and air control facilities ...

Zaventem Zaventem () is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is located in the Dijleland area, one of the three large recreational areas which together form the '' Groene Gordel'' ("Green Belt") around th ...

. The airline filed for bankruptcy in October 2001.

Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium was a Belgian leisure airline owned by the Thomas Cook Group. It operated scheduled flights to destinations throughout Europe and Africa from its base at Brussels Airport. The airline operated from 2002 until 2017. ...

considered buying them out of bankruptcy, but later pulled out. They flew a fleet of twelve aircraft including the

Boeing 767-300ER The Boeing 767 is an American wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The aircraft was launched as the 7X7 program on July 14, 1978, the prototype first flew on September 26, 1981, and it was certified ...

, various

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the t ...

models, the

Airbus A300-600R The Airbus A300 is Airbus' first production aircraft and the world's first Twinjet, twin-engine, double-aisle Wide-body aircraft, (wide-body) airliner. It was developed by ''Airbus Industrie GIE'', now merged into Airbus SE, and manufactured f ...

and the

McDonnell Douglas MD-11 The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 is an American trijet wide-body aircraft, wide-body airliner manufactured by American manufacturer McDonnell Douglas (MDC) and later by Boeing. Following McDonnell Douglas DC-10, DC-10 development studies, the MD-11 ...

. Over 50 European cities were served via Brussels. Citybird employed over 600 employees as of 2001 and was listed at

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

Europe a.k.a. Eastdaq under the ticker symbol CBIR (CityBird holding SA) in November 1997. Though they had bought their first MD-11 in December 1996, they did not begin operations until March 1997. Their planes offered a "Royal Eagle" business class, "Premium Flamingo" class (not on Newark flights), and "Colibri" economy class. They used the "point-to-point" approach to air travel rather than the "hub and spoke" connecting hub concept wherein all transatlantic flights (from

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, Newark,

Oakland Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Orlando Orlando commonly refers to: * Orlando, Florida, a city in the United States Orlando may also refer to: People * Orlando (given name), a masculine name, includes a list of people with the name * Orlando (surname), includes a list of people wit ...

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

) went to

Brussels Airport Brussels Airport is the main international airport of Belgium. It is located in the municipality of Zaventem in Flemish Brabant, northeast of Brussels. Also informally known as Brussels-National Airport or Brussels-Zaventem Airport, Brussels ...

(BRU) on an airport to airport basis. All aircraft featured the airline's tagline, "The Flying Dream." In July 1999, CityBird began cargo activities using two A300-600 "full freighters."

Destinations in the western hemisphere

According to the airline's timetable covers, the following destinations in the western hemisphere were served by CityBird from its hub in Brussels: North America *Cuba **Varadero *Mexico **Cancún **Mexico City *United States **Las Vegas **Los Angeles **Miami **New York City (served via

Newark Liberty International Airport Newark Liberty International Airport is a major international airport serving the New York metropolitan area. The airport straddles the boundary between the cities of Newark, New Jersey, Newark in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County and E ...

) **Oakland (San Francisco was served via

Oakland International Airport Oakland International Airport is an international airport in Oakland, California, United States. The airport is located south of downtown Oakland and east of San Francisco, serving the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. The airport is ...

) **Orlando South America *Suriname **Paramaribo CityBird also served over 50 destinations in Europe from its Brussels hub.

Fleet

CityBird operated the following aircraft:

References

External links

CityBird
(Archive)

{{Airlines of Belgium Defunct airlines of Belgium Airlines established in 1996 Airlines disestablished in 2001 Zaventem Belgian companies established in 1996 2001 disestablishments in Belgium

Destinations in the western hemisphere

Fleet

See also

References

External links