CityBird was an airline founded in 1996 and based in Brussels, Belgium. It filed for bankruptcy in October 2001. Thomas Cook toyed with the idea of buying them out of bankruptcy, but later pulled out.

They flew a fleet of 12 aircraft including Boeing 767-300ER, Airbus A300-600, Boeing 737 and McDonnell Douglas MD-11 aircraft. They flew to more than 50 European cities via Brussels. Citybird employed over 600 employees as of 2001 and was listed at NASDAQ 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 began operations in March 1997.

Their planes offered a "Royal Eagle" business class, "Premium Flamingo" class (non-Newark flights only), and "Colibri" economy class. They used the "point-to-point" approach to flying rather than the "hub and spoke" wherein all flights (from Los Angeles, Newark, Oakland, Miami, Orlando or Mexico City) all went to Brussels Airport. All aircraft featured the airline's tagline, "The Flying Dream."

In July 1999, CityBird began doing cargo activities using two A300-600 "full freighters." Today, several former CityBird planes are now in service in Australia with Virgin Blue.Fact: date=March 2007

Fleet

• 2 Airbus A300-600R
• 1 Boeing 737-300
• 4 Boeing 737-400
• 3 Boeing 737-800
• 2 Boeing 767-300ER
• 3 McDonnell Douglas MD-11

External links

• Airlines Remembered
• More pictures
• Cargo information