The Societé anonyme belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation aérienne (French; lit. 'Belgian Anonymous Society for the Exploitation of Aerial Navigation'), better known by the acronym Sabena or SABENA, was the national airline of Belgium from 1923 to 2001, with its base at Brussels Airport. 

Sabena was founded on 23 May 1923, and opened its first scheduled service between Brussels and Strasbourg (France) in 1924. Scheduled services were further opened to London, Paris and Amsterdam.

The first successful flight between Brussels and Léopoldville (now Kinshasa) occurred in 1925, and a scheduled service between these two cities opened in 1938 (56 hours of flight).

In 1947, the first transatlantic service to New York was opened.

In 1953, SABENA was the first airline in the world to launch an helicopter scheduled service, between Brussels and the European capitals.

In 1964, SABENA carried for the first time more than 1,000,000 passengers in a year.

In 1969, a scheduled service to Tokyo was opened. Then followed scheduled services to Montevideo and Santiago (1974).

Due to increasing financial problems, SABENA signed a partnership agreement with Air France in 1992. Air France withdrew in 1994.

In 1995, SABENA signed a partnership agreement with Swissair, which took a 49.5% equity holding. In 1998, SABENA was among the founding members of the Qualiflyer group, created by Swissair, which increased its equity holding to 85%.

In 1999, SABENA carried for the first time more than 10,000,000 passengers in a year and served 165,000 flights (83.1% in Europe, 6;6% to Africa, and 9.2% transatlantic).

In April 2001, the fleet included 12 long-haul aircrafts and 66 median-haul aircrafts. SABENA has 11,000 employees and 1,500 more in outstations.

SABENA was liquidated on 6 November 2001 after 78 years of existence.

Sabena commissioned Magritte to paint "L'Oiseau de Ciel," or "Sky Bird" in 1965. The image of a stylized bird in flight over an illuminated runway, its body filled with clouds against a light-blue sky, appeared in Sabena advertising campaigns and became the carrier's symbol. Some people have referred to it as a national icon.

L'Oiseau de Ciel (The Sky Bird) filled with clouds or leaves, materials other than their natural feathers, are a common motif in Magritte's work. A version of this image served for several years as the emblem of Sabena, a well-known Belgian airline. The work's public usage points to its simple elegance and effectiveness as a visual statement. The poet Henri Michaux described,

an animal becoming one with her environment (Meuris, 170). Scholar Jacques Meuris explains the artist's re-use of images not as copying but as, "a vocabulary of images compiled for his own purposes much as we use words" (Ibid). As one of the last works created by the artist before his death in 1967, The Sky Bird is both a wonderful tribute to a life devoted to art, and a bittersweet image of an animal on the final leg of a journey.