SABINA, the national airline of Belgium, is an acronym for
“Societe Anonyme Belgique pour la Exploitation de la Navigation Aerienne”, or, “Anonymous Belgian Society for the Exploitation of Avaiation”.
So what the heck were they so secretive about?
Ha ! That’s an easy one.
In Belgium the juristical form of a company that has stock, participants or shareholders who are unknown (=therefore Anonyme) is called in French a SA or Society Anonyme or in Dutch Naamloze Vennootschap (NV). The board of directors cannot held responsible with their private capital. Most big companies have this form of company.
When I worked for a distress passenger service company
S A B E N A
U A X E G
C D E V A
H P E I
I R N
E
R
E
N
C
E
SA, Societe Anonyme is simply the phrase in used in French to refer to corporations, or rather as I recall joint stock companies. Nothing particularly mysterious about this.
SABENA is probably best translated as
Belgian National Airline Co.
Or Belgian National Aerial Development Corporation.