BRU pax operations: the future

[OO-ITR]

According to German media reports, SQ will announce next monday a new direct flight between DUS and SIN.

http://www.solinger-tageblatt.de/rhein- ... 78341.html

Bad news for BRU (?)

Let's not forget that ANA started DUS before they came to BRU. So starting DUS does not mean that BRU is out of the picture...

[DannyVDB]

Moreover, in the past many long-haul destinations were launched, but few remained ... We'll see ...
D

[crew1990]

Yes indeed but the economic and international envirment is not the same than before 2001, the Belgian aviation is booming those days. With Brussels Airlines guetting stronger and stronger while many other carrier like Ryanair, Vueling, thaï airways, ana are coming in Brussels shows that BRU is a really good place to invest for PAX trafic

[Jetter]

That's a bit too optimistic; a large BRU freight and pax operator just announced leaving (ET/9W).

[crew1990]

That's a bit too optimistic; a large BRU freight and pax operator just announced leaving (ET/9W).

If you reread my post you will see that I was talking about PAX trafic, as far as I know ET didn't move her pax traffic, and 9w is not gone yet! It's not optimistic at all.

[Conti764]

That's a bit too optimistic; a large BRU freight and pax operator just announced leaving (ET/9W).

Okay, 9W leaving (if so) is not good news... But it only means a rather small setback for BRU of 600.000 pax a year. Again, it's a shame when any carrier leaves the airport, but BRU's continuous growth outgrows this loss.

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Brussels has to look to Jet Airways as an oppurtunity..
Clear up some space for better connections..

SN,Air Canada can look to fill/replace this gap.. in competition with AMS
Bring some B787 in and do the Jet trick ourselves..

Besides Air India is also Star Alliance so this can fill the gap..
Sabena flew also India so ..

SN/AI equipment to India and connect onto SN/AC/UA.. for North America..

Some guts it's all some need,

CXB

[Conti764]

Hi,

Brussels has to look to Jet Airways as an oppurtunity..
Clear up some space for better connections..

SN,Air Canada can look to fill/replace this gap.. in competition with AMS
Bring some B787 in and do the Jet trick ourselves..

Besides Air India is also Star Alliance so this can fill the gap..
Sabena flew also India so ..

SN/AI equipment to India and connect onto SN/AC/UA.. for North America..

Some guts it's all some need,

CXB

Unlike 9W, AI opts for direct flights to North-America.

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Indeed... :/ but maybe there is an extra demand.. the pax of JET..
The BRU-India traffic is maybe not enough to fill a full plane.. so they can take this and try to fill the rest like JET.. but with more attractive fares / better service...
The pax were present in the past so it's just how to get them in your own construction in competition with JET and AMS...
Guess a small chocolat won't do the trick.. but maybe some other know how

CXB

[HQ_BRU_Lover]

This is an interesting article in the development for BRU.

Looks to me that this shrinks chances for a SIA-BRU route as SQ is focussing on three important hubs in Europe.

[sn26567]

This is an interesting article in the development for BRU.

Looks to me that this shrinks chances for a SIA-BRU route as SQ is focussing on three important hubs in Europe.

Indeed. This shows the limits of being part of the Lufthansa Group. LH Headquarters decide who is going to be involved in a JV and who is not. In this case, LH, OS and LX are the winners and SN (as well as BRU) are the losers.

[Inquirer]

On the contrary even, I'd say.
Singapore Airlines will form a J.V. with ALL of the Lufthansa subsidiaries, so provided Brussels does get taken over in full by Lufthansa, they will be automatically included in it at some stage.
The full take over of Brussels Airlines by Lufthansa is -once again- a prerequisite to flights to Singapore: it shows how important it's going to be for the long term strategy and growth plans of them, contrary to what a lot of people who still dream about a stand alone flag carrier may think.
Also, it does show how BRU's future and that of its home based company are interwoven and it does explain why the airport is increasingly pulling their card. (see the Jetairways possible exit).

[Conti764]

On the contrary even, I'd say.
Singapore Airlines will form a J.V. with ALL of the Lufthansa subsidiaries, so provided Brussels does get taken over in full by Lufthansa, they will be automatically included in it at some stage.
The full take over of Brussels Airlines by Lufthansa is -once again- a prerequisite to flights to Singapore: it shows how important it's going to be for the long term strategy and growth plans of them, contrary to what a lot of people who still dream about a stand alone flag carrier may think.
Also, it does show how BRU's future and that of its home based company are interwoven and it does explain why the airport is increasingly pulling their card. (see the Jetairways possible exit).

Why would SN automatically be included in the JV if one day LH would take up its option? Only being partially involved into the LH Group, didn't stop SN from being included in the transatlantic JV, A++...

I said it in 2009 and I remain at my opinion that LH/Star alliance were not the right option for SN. IAG, Oneworld would have been much better for SN.

[Inquirer]

Why would SN automatically be included in the JV if one day LH would take up its option?

You are right of course: there is no real automatism in business.
I was thinking of their EU-Japan J.V. when I wrote that comment: with ANA present at BRU and Brussels Airlines fully intergrated in the Lufthansa group, them being included into that J.V. would be an automatism, almost.

For them to be included in any Singapore-EU JV, there would have to be a direct flight first, although it may come in parallel to it of course, depending exactly the benefits both parties can extract from it.

Only being partially involved into the LH Group, didn't stop SN from being included in the transatlantic JV, A++?

Although I am definitely not a specialist in this field, it's clear the transatlantic J.V. is of a completely different kind than any other J.V.'s of Lufthansa: it is a multi-party J.V. (so including another unconsolidated airline is likely no big deal) and it operates between trading blocks which have an open sky agreement: it's a completely different legal set up to be included into a restrictive bilateral J.V. framework, I am sure.

Besides, is Singapore Airlines even interested in Brussels Airlines? Remember the J.V. is about sharing revenues! Some people really forget easily that aviation is a money business and there's very little place for irrational emotions or sympathy: if the numbers add up, it happens; otherwise, it's very unlikely.
In case of a J.V., the numbers needs to add up on both sides even.

I said it in 2009 and I remain at my opinion that LH/Star alliance were not the right option for SN. IAG, Oneworld would have been much better for SN.

I dont think they have the wealth to chose who they work with: not then, not now???
If you look at it objectively, BRU is a mediumsized airport surrounded by several very big hubs serving all continents already, while it also has one of the biggest low cost bases on the continent within eyesight.
This means you can pretty much reach every meaningful place in Europe directly from Belgium as well as every place in the world nonstop starting from a place within 300km: no wonder candidates weren't/aren't exactly standing in line to invest in a local airline which was heavily lossmaking at the time (up to almost -10% of their annual turnover at one point, remember?).

If they would have joined Oneword iso STAR alliance, it would likely have been without any meaningful financial commitment from the side of IAG and knowing what we know now of how the global economy tanked shortly after, I have no doubt they would have gone bust in the meantime as they would not have provided them with liquidity to cover 5 years of only massive losses.

For all the positive opportunities that I can see in Brussels Airlines, it's not like they are God's gift to European aviation either, is it, for which candidates should be lining up to be allowed to spend unlimited amounts of money on. Just as Brussels Airport, they need to work extremely hard to carve a niche out for themselves in what is a very competitive and already saturated landscape and both are doing so very well at present, not to the least because they are increasingly doing it together.

[Conti764]

Although your story is true, both BRU and SN could have had a bigger meaning for IAG/Oneworld then they do for LH/Star... Star Alliance is a juggernaut covering so much airlines that SN is only a very small cherry on the large cake.

Within Oneworld BRU could have been some sort of reliever hub for heavily congested LHR. The current portfolio of Oneworld airlines would have been better suited for SN and BRU than Star Alliance.

You'd have HKG with CX, Japan with JAL, South America with TAM and LAN, maybe Malaysia Airlines. And of course the USA with AA, which already was an SN partner prior to the latter joining Star Alliance ans lining up with UA. Same story for Qatar which already is present at BRU and is in Oneworld.

Such development might have led to 9W aligining itself with Oneworld and, possibly, becoming a member at some point in time. This was impossible with Star Alliance after they pledged themselves to Air India. Oneworld is also lacking a Chinese carrier, it could have opened opportunities for BRU and Hainan, them aligning themselves with SN/Oneworld. I'm not saying 9W and HU joining Oneworld because of SN, nor that Oneworld would have accepted them for that sole reason, but it would have had more meaning for SN compared with now, where the LH Group is deciding where to go with each single member. LX has great added value for them, but not so SN (accept for Africa). Everything far east from Europe, LH keeps for itself. The only Asian routes BRU has, have been the result of their work seperately from LH whereas I believe SN and BRU could have more use for Oneworld, even more so before IAG got established...

Just my two cents though

[lumumba]

LATAM denkt aan vlucht naar Brussels Airport

Sam Derdeyn 19 november 2015, 14:49 Reacties: 0
Mogelijk komt er op middellange termijn weer een lijndienst tussen Brussels Airport en Zuid-Amerika. De luchthaven en de Minister van Transport, Ben Weyts, hebben recent immers “positieve” gesprekken gevoerd met de top van luchtvaartmaatschappij LATAM over een eventuele verbinding naar Brazilië.

Het is al vijftien jaar geleden dan er nog een rechtstreekse vlucht vanuit Brussels Airport naar Zuid-Amerika was. Een paar jaar geleden was er sprake van een nieuwe verbinding naar Sao Paolo, maar Singapore Airlines koos toen voor Barcelona als Europese tussenstop. Desalniettemin is Brazilië al jaren één van de topprioriteiten voor de luchthaven. “Wij tasten al jaren de markt af op zoek naar geïnteresseerde vliegtuigmaatschappijen,” zegt woordvoerster Anke Fransen.

De laatste tijd zijn de contacten met LATAM versterkt, omdat de luchtvaartmaatschappij had aangegeven dat ze meer naar Europa wil vliegen. Momenteel is er enkel een vlucht naar Duitsland, maar LATAM kijkt naast Brussel ook naar steden Lissabon, Zürich of Amsterdam. Een snelle doorbraak hoeven we echter niet te verwachten. Volgens Brussels Airport kan het nog ruim een jaar duren vooraleer er weer nieuws is omtrent de beslissing.
Bron: Belga, De Tijd
LATAM is maybe interested to start to fly to Brussels.

[Inquirer]

LATAM would be a nice addition, but given they are in a different alliance, its difficult to see them being very bot on BRU. Although the other places they consider are also STAR hubs, so maybe they want to come to more difficult places in Europe too? In that case, BRU mitt be a good candidate because they could try to code share with Finnair for instance, or Vueling.
About the comment they only serve FRA in Europe. They serve Madrid, or London too for sure, possibly also Barcelona, so I have an impression they were indeed just talking about STAR hubs, don't you all think too?