Staff at Sabena gathered to protest against job losses as the Belgian national airline filed for bankruptcy this morning.
Sabena gave up weeks-long battle for survival today when it became the first European flag carrier to file for bankruptcy in the increasingly bleak global aviation industry.
Lawyers for the 78-year-old airline, Europe's second oldest, requested the parent company's liquidation at the Brussels commercial court this morning after Sabena's chairman Mr Fred Chaffart announced late yesterday the board had found no new investors.
Hundreds of Sabena staff, who had been handed a piece of paper telling them of the board's decision to seek bankruptcy and asking them not to turn up for work, gathered at Zaventem national airport today to protest against job losses.
"We have lived through a terrible horror movie for a year. The country is down, it's finished with Sabena," said passenger services assistant Mr Ronald op de Beeck, adding that protests could be explosive.
Trade unions and the government negotiated through the night on how to save at least some of the 12,000 jobs directly at risk from Sabena's failure and compensate workers laid off.
Talks were suspended at 6 a.m. (local time) after 15 hours and were due to resume later in the day.
Meanwhile, the government said it was still negotiating with Belgian private and institutional investors on plans to continue some of Sabena's airline activities under its regional subsidiary, Delta Air Transport (DAT).
The collapse of Sabena, 50.5 per cent owned by the Belgian government and 49.5 percent owned by debt-laden Swissair, is Belgium's biggest corporate failure.