Court ruling on former Sabena bank crucial for airline's successor

A Belgian commercial court is due to decide whether to grant bankruptcy protection to the former in-house bank of collapsed airline Sabena.

The ruling is crucial to efforts to set up a successor to the failed national carrier.

A bankruptcy decision could ground DAT, the former Sabena subsidiary which the government is trying to develop as a new Belgian airline.

A €200m private investment plan to keep DAT flying is dependent on creditors accepting a plan to waive more than half DAT's €109m debt Sabena Interservice Center and swapping the remainder for a stake in the bank.

Sabena was declared bankrupt in November as the impact of the September 11 terrorist attacks compounded years of losses.