European Air Transport

IATA QY ICAO BCS Callsign EUROTRANS
Founded	1971
Hubs	Brussels Airport, Leipzig/Halle Airport
Fleet size	29
Destinations	Europe, Middle East and Africa (some 56 countries are covered)
Parent company	DHL Express
Headquarters	Zaventem, Belgium
Key people	Arthur White, Managing Director EAT
Website	www.dhl.com/eat

European Air Transport N.V./S.A. is a cargo airline based in Zaventem near Brussels, Belgium. It is wholly owned by Deutsche Post World Net^[1] and operates the group's DHL-branded parcel and express services in Europe. It also provides ad-hoc charter services including livestock transport. Its main base has been moved to Leipzig/Halle Airport.

[edit] History

^{[citation needed]}

European Air Transport (EAT) was founded by two pilots, Mr. Pirlot de Corbion and Mr. Dessain, as an air taxi service. EAT started with a 2 aircraft, a Beechcraft Queen Air and a Gardan Horizon. It soon became clear that there was a need for pilots on the Belgian market, so EAT started a pilot training school. In 1973 EAT was the first Piper Flying Centre in Europe.

EAT expanded its activities by entering into a contract with DHL Worldwide Express in 1985. Just before that, DHL selected Brussels Airport as the location for its European Hub. The co-operation between EAT and DHL was so successful that in 1986 DHL decided to make EAT part of the DHL group, and thus became the major DHL airline for Europe and Africa. On 19 January 1993, EAT became a member of IATA. In the same year, EAT obtained the necessary permits for the transportation of a number of dangerous goods and live animals.

In 2002, Deutsche Post completed the takeover of DHL, making EAT a wholly-owned subsidiary.

In October 2004 Deutsche Post announced that Brussels Airport would no longer be DHL's major hub for Europe as from 2008, due to the failure of the Belgian Federal Government and Deutsche Post to reach an agreement on a framework to permit DHL to expand its future flight operations through Brussels Airport. As a consequence, Deutsche Post moved decided to make Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany its new international aviation hub, with daily flights through Brussels and all major cities in Europe. EAT Headquarters remains in Brussels and will continue to be DHL's major European airline. EAT has a license for scheduled and unscheduled cargo flights all over the world. EAT employs more than 5000 people.

[edit] Destinations

European Air Transport operates services to Europe, Middle East and Africa. 56 countries are covered in total.^{[citation needed]}

DHL Network in Europe:^[2]
- Main Hub: Leipzig, Germany [LEJ]
- Regional Hubs: East Midland, UK [EMA] (serviced by EAT's sister airline DHL Air UK) / Brussels, Belgium [BRU] / Bergamo, Italy [BGY]
- Consolidation Hubs : Copenhagen, Denmark [CPH] / Vitoria, Spain [VIT]
- Commercial Hubs : Amsterdam, Netherlands [AMS], Paris CDG, France [CDG] / London Heathrow, UK [LHR] / Frankfurt, Germany [FRA] / Madrid, Spain [MAD]
- +75 air gateways

[edit] Fleet

Airbus A300B4 in old colour scheme

As of January 2009, the European Air Transport fleet consists of:^[3]

[edit] Accidents and incidents

• In 2002, DHL Flight 611 collided with Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937 over Germany, killing all people on board both aircraft.
• In 2003, a European Air Transport A300 aircraft was struck by a missile shortly after takeoff from Baghdad, Iraq. See 2003 Baghdad DHL attempted shootdown incident.

[edit] References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: European Air Transport

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