N.V. Virgin Express S.A. was a Belgian airline created within the

Virgin Group Virgin Group Ltd is a British multinational venture capital conglomerate founded by Richard Branson and Nik Powell in February 1970. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding compa ...

. It operated flights mainly to southern Europe from its hub at Brussels Airport. Ticket sales were mainly through the Internet. The airline merged with SN Brussels Airlines to form Brussels Airlines, which started operations on 25 March 2007. Virgin Express' head office was in Building 116 at Brussels Airport in Zaventem,

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, near

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

History

Virgin Express was founded on 23 April 1996, when the

(with chairman

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneu ...

) bought the Belgian leisure airline EBA - EuroBelgian Airlines, founded by Victor Hasson and Georges Gutelman, and rebranded it Virgin Express. It also took over EBA's fleet of

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 ...

s and operated this type of aircraft from thereon. The airline soon concentrated on low-budget scheduled flights out of its Brussels hub, and became a major competitor for Sabena and later SN Brussels Airlines. In October 2004, the Virgin Group sold its assets to SN Brussels Airlines, and both airlines were integrated into the parent

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

SN Airholding, chaired by Viscount

Étienne Davignon Étienne, Count Davignon (; born 4 October 1932) is a Belgium, Belgian former diplomat, top civil servant, businessman, and former vice-president of the European Commission, also known as an active participant in organization of the murder of P ...

. On 31 March 2006, SN Brussels Airlines and Virgin Express announced their merger into a single company, named Brussels Airlines. The combined airline added long haul destinations and strengthened its position in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Fleet

During its 11-year existence, Virgin Express had operated the following aircraft:

Flight International ''Flight International'', formerly ''Flight'', is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", i ...

, 3–9 October 2006 Three Boeing 737-300 (OO-VEX, OO-VEG and OO-VEH) were fitted with winglets (March 2007). The airline operated a maximum of 26 737s at its peak, and was given the first Joint Aviation Authorities air operator's certificate delivered by the Belgian Civil Aviation Authorities. After the merger, all ten of the Virgin Express fleet went to Brussels Airlines. The airline has since phased out its Boeing 737s.

References

External links

Virgin Express web page at archive.org
{{Authority control Defunct airlines of Belgium

Express Express, The Expresss or EXPRESS may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * ''Express: Aisle to Glory'', a 1998 comedy short film featuring Kal Penn * ''The Express: The Ernie Davis Story'', a 2008 film starring Dennis Quaid * The Expre ...

Defunct European low-cost airlines Airlines established in 1996 Airlines disestablished in 2007 Zaventem 2007 disestablishments in Belgium Belgian companies established in 1996

History

Fleet

See also

References

External links