Georges Gutelman (6 December 1938 – 5 November 2019) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

engineer and businessman who specialized in aviation.

Biography

Gutelman was born in 1938 to

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

immigrant parents. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, his mother was murdered by the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

, while he hid with his father in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. Gutelman graduated from the

University of Liège The University of Liège (french: Université de Liège), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French. As of 2020, ULiège is ranked in the 301 ...

in 1963 and shortly thereafter started a travel agency and bought his first plane with his childhood friend,

Jean Gol Jean Gol (8 February 1942 – 18 September 1995) was a Belgian politician for the liberal Walloon party Parti Réformateur Libéral (PRL). He was a minister, on several occasions, in the Belgian government, including service as Deputy Prime Mini ...

. In 1971, Gutelman founded the charter airline

Trans European Airways Trans European Airways, usually referred to by its initials TEA, was a Belgian airline that operated from 1971 to 1991. It had its head office in Building 117 on the grounds of Melsbroek Airport in Steenokkerzeel, Belgium. History TEA was fou ...

. In 1984 and 1985, Gutelman used his business to help with

Operation Moses Operation Moses ( he, מִבְצָע מֹשֶׁה, ''Mivtza Moshe'') was the covert evacuation of Ethiopian Jews (known as the "Beta Israel" community or "Falashas") from Sudan during a civil war that caused a famine in 1984. Originally called '' ...

, an operation that helped evacuate

Ethiopian Ethiopians are the native inhabitants of Ethiopia, as well as the global diaspora of Ethiopia. Ethiopians constitute several component ethnic groups, many of which are closely related to ethnic groups in neighboring Eritrea and other parts of ...

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

from

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

into

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

during famine and civil war. In 1989, Gutelman was elected as businessman of the year by the Belgian magazine '' Trends''. Trans European Airways filed for bankruptcy in 1994, but the company was relaunched the following year as European Airlines, and later Eurobelgian Airlines. Eurobelgian Airlines was later bought by

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed ...

and renamed

Virgin Express N.V. Virgin Express S.A. was a Belgian airline created within the Virgin Group. It operated flights mainly to southern Europe from its hub at Brussels Airport. Ticket sales were mainly through the Internet. The airline merged with SN Brussels Ai ...

. After this, Gutelman partnered with

Victor Hasson Victor Hasson (1957 – January 10, 2005), also known as Vico was a Belgian (born in Burundi) businessman who started multiple companies. Career Victor Hasson, also known as "Vico", graduated from the Université libre de Bruxelles w ...

to start the airline

CityBird CityBird was an airline founded in 1996, and based in Building 117D, Melsbroek Airport in Zaventem. The airline filed for bankruptcy in October 2001. Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium considered buying them out of bankruptcy, but later pulled out. ...

, which went bankrupt after five years, in 2001. He founded

Birdy Airlines Birdy Airlines was an airline based in Belgium that offered long-haul flights from Brussels to Africa on behalf of SN Brussels Airlines using a fleet of three Airbus A330-300 The Airbus A330 is a wide-body aircraft developed and produced ...

in 2002, which ceased operations in 2004 after being bought by

SN Brussels Airlines SN Brussels Airlines (SNBA) was the national airline of Belgium, which mainly operated from Brussels Airport. SNBA was the trading name of the Belgian airline Delta Air Transport. SNBA was a full-service airline, connecting Brussels with the r ...

. That same year, Gutelman was arrested for financial fraud, but released a day later. Gutelman took a minority stake in Alma Telecom in 2006 with Albert Hasson, the brother of Victor Hasson who had died a year earlier. Gutelman had hopes of bringing the mobile phone to the African community. Georges Gutelman died on 5 November 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gutelman, Georges 1938 births 2019 deaths 20th-century Belgian engineers University of Liège alumni Belgian people of Polish-Jewish descent