SABCA S.XII its development programme. SABENA continued to operate the Wessex until about the end of 1934. SABCA S.XII The S.A.B.C.A. S.XII or S.A.B.C.A S.12 was a four-passenger light transport aircraft with three engines and a high wing, built in Belgium early in the 1930s. The SABCA S.XII (or S.12) was a response to a July 1930 Belgian government call and funding for an all-Belgian multi-engine aircraft able to carry a useful load of between . This was prompted by the purchase that summer by the national airline, SABENA, of four Westland Wessex trimotors. Speed, range and cabin minimum dimensions were specified,
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