Sabena Flight Academy a 'frozen' (becoming unfrozen when the candidate has completed 1500 hours in a multi-pilot environment) Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL). The origins of the creation of a school providing training for future airline pilots were in 1953, when the Belgian government, which owned the aircraft, contracted the operation thereof to Sabena under the name "École d’aviation civile" (EAC). The theoretical and flight training parts were conducted at the airfield of Grimbergen in a building which no longer exists. Basic training was done using de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moths, replaced in 1968 by Siai Marchetti SF260s, while advanced training was entrusted
Sabena Douglas DC-7C was introduced for long-haul routes but this plane would begin to be supplanted after only three years by the jet age. It remained in service on the transatlantic route until 1962. On 3 June 1954, a Soviet Air Force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (NATO reporting name "Fagot") attacked a Sabena-operated Douglas DC-3 on a cargo flight from the United Kingdom to Yugoslavia, killing the radio operator and wounding both the captain and engineer. Co-pilot Douglas Wilson managed to land in Austria but the plane suffered significant damage. For the 1958 world exposition in Brussels, Sabena leased two Lockheed Super Constellations