Air Belgium in 2022

[Lux_avi]

I fully agree with you. Like we are saying "he is burned now". Nobody will take anything serieus from him anymore after that article.

Well, it seems that Thibault was not really off the mark ! Turmoil at Air Belgium.

Ermmm... he was off the mark for many topics. Nobody said he was wrong about the financial status of Air Belgium.
He's probably responsible for launching a pretty bad campaign against Air Belgium, though.

[Lux_avi]

I fear the end is nearing. Walloon Govt is in deep financial turmoil, they won't inject money anytime soon. Difficult to justify that nowadays.

Air Belgium should have followed HiFly's business plan and profile. They were good at ACMI operations, and they're good as cargo company.

All the regular pax routes are pure prestige and ego stuff. They can't make money out of them. It's like Vastapane's Sobelair or Freddy Van Gaever / Tony Graam 's VG Ailrines.

Rumor as it that Lufthansa Group is closely following this file to take a potential stance later on...

Only the Chinese shareholder can save the situation, and we all know what it means.

I only see a future for them if they stop all PAX ops ASAP and concentrate on their cargo OPS.
And I don't see a future for them without the Chinese either...

[crew1990]

I wouldn't dare to say Air Belgium is over. Air Belgium has been created to replace Brussels Airlines wich was suppose to be canibalized by Eurowings. It finally never happened. So Air Belgium starded leisure routes and during covid cargo. I don't see any future for them for pax, but in the other hand, cargo seems working well. They should end their pax business, simplify their operation and focus on what they are good at, cargo.

[SR20]

I fully agree with you. Like we are saying "he is burned now". Nobody will take anything serieus from him anymore after that article.

Well, it seems that Thibault was not really off the mark ! Turmoil at Air Belgium.

Ermmm... he was off the mark for many topics. Nobody said he was wrong about the financial status of Air Belgium.
He's probably responsible for launching a pretty bad campaign against Air Belgium, though.

It looks like De Tijd has the same interpretation : they report that the real reason for the cancellation of the flights is an exodus of pilots at Air Belgium !

"Vakbondsbronnen melden echter dat de echte reden voor het schrappen van de vluchten een exodus aan piloten bij Air Belgium is."

https://www.tijd.be/ondernemen/luchtvaa ... 26852.html

[Atlantis]

Newspapers are just copy/paste from other sites. Real journalism is something from the past. With half info, pieces and not checked info they write articles.

The real info you could find on Av24, which is at least a good source.

What TL was writing was nothing about the financial status of the company but was an action straight against the company which was taken over by other media without, again, checking. Now is fast to publish and earning money. Quality? They never heard of it

[TLspotting]

Newspapers are just copy/paste from other sites. Real journalism is something from the past. With half info, pieces and not checked info they write articles.

The real info you could find on Av24, which is at least a good source.

What TL was writing was nothing about the financial status of the company but was an action straight against the company which was taken over by other media without, again, checking. Now is fast to publish and earning money. Quality? They never heard of it

Hey Atlantis, TL here.

I asked the journalist of Mediafin, he wasn't aware of the L-Post article. I contacted him first about the 19M€ being mentioned compared to the 16M€ that were told by LN24. For this news : he told me he was refering to a de Tijd's article of early '22.

My sources are different to his, his ones were the ones of the work unions. And my sources were mixed with the ones of my co-author.

[Lux_avi]

Well, it seems that Thibault was not really off the mark ! Turmoil at Air Belgium.

Ermmm... he was off the mark for many topics. Nobody said he was wrong about the financial status of Air Belgium.
He's probably responsible for launching a pretty bad campaign against Air Belgium, though.

It looks like De Tijd has the same interpretation : they report that the real reason for the cancellation of the flights is an exodus of pilots at Air Belgium !

"Vakbondsbronnen melden echter dat de echte reden voor het schrappen van de vluchten een exodus aan piloten bij Air Belgium is."

https://www.tijd.be/ondernemen/luchtvaa ... 26852.html

Says a union.

Come on, the same kind of union that suggests the closure of the complete belgian airspace due to poor working conditions of ATCO’s at Skeyes?

It is simply not true. I don’t even know how anyone could believe that. On top of that, they do have many pilot applications in their database, that is not a problem at all.

[Lux_avi]

Lecho reports that belgians would not be keen on putting more money into Air Belgium.

If it is the case, that would be pretty bad news for Air Belgium and also very stupid.

One more belgian cargo airline would disappear in favour of foreign AOC’s..

[JOVAN2]

Well, it seems that Thibault was not really off the mark ! Turmoil at Air Belgium.

Ermmm... he was off the mark for many topics. Nobody said he was wrong about the financial status of Air Belgium.
He's probably responsible for launching a pretty bad campaign against Air Belgium, though.

It looks like De Tijd has the same interpretation : they report that the real reason for the cancellation of the flights is an exodus of pilots at Air Belgium !

"Vakbondsbronnen melden echter dat de echte reden voor het schrappen van de vluchten een exodus aan piloten bij Air Belgium is."

https://www.tijd.be/ondernemen/luchtvaa ... 26852.html

De Tijd is the last Flemish newspaper with some journalistic quality.

However, as a subscriber, I noticed already many times that their articles about aviation are unprofessional and that they just take over news items from other sources, without good knowledge and without analysing the real situation.

The News-items and Forums on Aviation24.be give a lot more information and good analyses.

Let us hope for the best for Air Belgium.
Cargo is beneficial without any doubt, but PAX flight to USA and LATIN AMERICA would certainly be more interesting for a Belgian public.
And bring in much needed DOLLARS.

Forget Dutch and French Caribean places, the Dutch and FrencH are dominant there no Belgians go to Bonaire or Curacao.
To steal Dutch and French PAX for such destinations can only be done with very cheap prices.
enrb

[Lux_avi]

Cargo is beneficial without any doubt, but PAX flight to USA and LATIN AMERICA would certainly be more interesting for a Belgian public.
And bring in much needed DOLLARS.

There is no need, no market, no reason to start those flights. Air Belgium has no network. United, Delta, SN are already on the market. You can fly to anywhere in the US & Latin America with Lufthansa, British Airways, KLM, Air France, whatever. It is impossible to make money on these routes from BRU.

They need to stick to their cargo ops with Honguyan, it's the only future they have.
Forget about PAX flights.

[b720]

Cargo is beneficial without any doubt, but PAX flight to USA and LATIN AMERICA would certainly be more interesting for a Belgian public.
And bring in much needed DOLLARS.

There is no need, no market, no reason to start those flights. Air Belgium has no network. United, Delta, SN are already on the market. You can fly to anywhere in the US & Latin America with Lufthansa, British Airways, KLM, Air France, whatever. It is impossible to make money on these routes from BRU.

They need to stick to their cargo ops with Honguyan, it's the only future they have.
Forget about PAX flights.

I agree.. cargo is their future..
and also think that Caribbean isn’t viable from Belgium.
Africa is, they can partner with THALYS/Eurostar/SNCF/nmbs
For connecting in brussels to selected africa flights. Plus cargo.

[Atlantis]

Newspapers are just copy/paste from other sites. Real journalism is something from the past. With half info, pieces and not checked info they write articles.

The real info you could find on Av24, which is at least a good source.

What TL was writing was nothing about the financial status of the company but was an action straight against the company which was taken over by other media without, again, checking. Now is fast to publish and earning money. Quality? They never heard of it

Hey Atlantis, TL here.

I asked the journalist of Mediafin, he wasn't aware of the L-Post article. I contacted him first about the 19M€ being mentioned compared to the 16M€ that were told by LN24. For this news : he told me he was refering to a de Tijd's article of early '22.

My sources are different to his, his ones were the ones of the work unions. And my sources were mixed with the ones of my co-author.

TL, your comments are making it even worser. You are mentioning unions. We know that unions destroy companies instead of saving them. Newspapers, we know that they don't have knowledge of aviation. And your mix of sourses makes that you are not reliable.

This is something not done. Sorry to say.
People like Andre are reliable as they bring correct news. Not sensation. That's why they get invitations for important meetings or press conferences bcs their articles after are correct.

[Atlantis]

Cargo is beneficial without any doubt, but PAX flight to USA and LATIN AMERICA would certainly be more interesting for a Belgian public.
And bring in much needed DOLLARS.

There is no need, no market, no reason to start those flights. Air Belgium has no network. United, Delta, SN are already on the market. You can fly to anywhere in the US & Latin America with Lufthansa, British Airways, KLM, Air France, whatever. It is impossible to make money on these routes from BRU.

They need to stick to their cargo ops with Honguyan, it's the only future they have.
Forget about PAX flights.

Let's wait and see how their flights to SA perform. Africa is doing well out of Belgium But with a network behind you. That's why cooperation with SN would make sense. But that's all speculation now bcs there is not much over now.

Cargo is their business and they know how to do it as the CEO was the former CEO of TNT Express in LGG.

[JOVAN2]

Cargo is beneficial without any doubt, but PAX flight to USA and LATIN AMERICA would certainly be more interesting for a Belgian public.
And bring in much needed DOLLARS.

There is no need, no market, no reason to start those flights. Air Belgium has no network. United, Delta, SN are already on the market. You can fly to anywhere in the US & Latin America with Lufthansa, British Airways, KLM, Air France, whatever. It is impossible to make money on these routes from BRU.

They need to stick to their cargo ops with Honguyan, it's the only future they have.
Forget about PAX flights.

Let's wait and see how their flights to SA perform. Africa is doing well out of Belgium But with a network behind you. That's why cooperation with SN would make sense. But that's all speculation now bcs there is not much over now.

Cargo is their business and they know how to do it as the CEO was the former CEO of TNT Express in LGG.

CARGO Business is also volatile and after the big boom ( transporting Covid vaccins ) this sector is already cooling down.

The main problem for Air Belgium has been to find the rightr destinations.
Carribean destinations which are part of France, UK or NL, will never attract a substantial number of " locals"
I mean Belgians are not interested in such destinations, you can only attract people from South NL or North France. With low prices.
And the Carribean islands are actually very poor. There is no big reservoir of locals to make a trip to Europe via Belgium.

For USA the story is different: destinations like Boston, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston are big potentials, both for business and tourist travellers, and cargo. Americans are big travellers and Europe is a top destination. Convenient flight to a non-hectic airport like BRU are certainly a unique sellinbg point. Furthermore, there are good train connections to countries surrounding us, as well as bus links for the everywhere at low prices.
Many US tourists and business people just rent cars .

Don't forget there are hundreds of Belgian companies with business and factories in USA. And vice-versa even more.

BRU central position is an absolute advantage.

SN is totally dependent on LH and after so many years of German ownership we see no improvement in fleet or network development.


USA destinations would bring in strong Dollars needed for good financial management.

Other destinations to consider Mexico City, Cancun , Rio.

[Inquirer]

While there may be a market for more transatlantic flights from Brussels, I doubt it is lucrative for a small and unknown stand-alone airline.

We got to remember the business part is locked in corporate contracts, so unless AB would -at the very least- join an alliance or fly under the wings of another airline like DL or AA, they have zero chance of gaining any of that market! People who fly 2 or 3 weekly to the States for work do that on a corporate contract and always fly the same (group of) airlines: they don't go ticket shopping nor do they swap airlines just like that.

That leaves just the indivual occasional traveler who flies once a year, probably over holiday periods and most possibly only the Belgians, since Americans are known to be averse to flying foreign metal, especially if totally unknown to them like AB is.
I doubt there's a huge market of only Belgians interested to go to Texas daily.
Maybe California 1 or 2 weekly, for a couple of months a year, but the rest of the year such a flight would be loss making without any corporate traffic and without any feeding at either end.

Brussels isn't London or Paris: there's not much on the other end of the Ocean this place can support on its own, except New York and Washington (due to the EU), both of which are very well covered already. Air Belgium is a purely tourist oriented airlines, sadly without sufficient local tourists to fly on their intercontinental flights and they clearly don't succeed in bringing people in to BRU. I suppose SN won't help them with feed either, as they prefer to route those flows to the other group's hub instead.

[theeuropean]

News from Air Belgium - Emirates Sky Cargo to use Air Belgium A330F from end of November 2022

Link: https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/221118-ekcdec22cgkakl

[crew1990]

The funds of the Walloon government being hesitant, Air Belgium is discussing with potential European investors to ensure its winter season.

Important meeting this Thursday at the Brabant headquarters of Air Belgium, in Mont-Saint-Guibert. The 500 employees who are currently on the ground will be informed of the airline's situation. The tension is palpable since the revelations of the LN24 channel of the need for 10 million euros in order to survive until the end of the year.

Founder and CEO Niky Terzakis did not hesitate to speak of an urgent need for funds. "We will, of course, continue our operations next year. Our shareholders are not giving up." Nevertheless, the situation is complicated.

The Walloon Region is indeed hesitant. Some experts point to the current merger of investments (Sogepa, SRIW and Sowalfin) which prevents any decision, but also the choice of the company to opt for connections to Africa from Brussels-National. The authorities wanted to anchor the company in the Walloon Region, therefore more in Liège or Charleroi.

Nevertheless, to keep its status as a European company, Air Belgium must preserve at least half of its shareholding. Wallonia, with 35% of the capital is the 2nd shareholder. The search for other European lenders is therefore essential.

"Airlines are constantly faced with financial challenges. I don't know of any, with the exception of Ryanair, for which this is not the case", summarizes Nicky Terzakis. "We've been going from one stimulus package to another for three years. People forget that we're in a bigger crisis than the pandemic. Fuel prices have gone up 75%."

At the beginning of the month, Air Belgium canceled its winter flights to the Caribbean. This measure is in addition to the expected loss of cargo missions and associated aircraft for the French carrier CMA-CGM, which has led to a major flight of pilots.

Liquid assets should make it possible to ensure the 2022/2023 winter season, but Niky Terzakis explains that the company is also negotiating "an important strategic investment" which should make it possible to return to growth and, from next May, to profits. "We are considering new destinations for our passenger aircraft." He dreams in particular of flights to the United States.

The largest shareholder is the Chinese logistics group Hongyang. In February, he injected 19 million euros and took 49% of the capital. However, the pandemic had plunged equity into the red to the tune of 15.8 million euros.

https://www.lecho.be/entreprises/aviati ... 30041.html

[Atlantis]

Forget it to organize African flights from CRL or LGG when you don't have connections and landing middle of nowhere.
Politics, shareholders, shamefully will decide again if they can survive or not bcs of choosing the airport. According to them, they prefer not BRU bcs it's not Walloon. How crazy can it be...

[Lux_avi]

Forget it to organize African flights from CRL or LGG when you don't have connections and landing middle of nowhere.
Politics, shareholders, shamefully will decide again if they can survive or not bcs of choosing the airport. According to them, they prefer not BRU bcs it's not Walloon. How crazy can it be...

Shameful indeed. But more worrying, the same guys « manage » the country as well…

[Kapitein]

A330-200 OELAC is expected to join the fleet, will arrive at BRU around 1400LT