All future short- and medium-haul aircraft of Brussels Airlines will – from now on – get the Eurowings livery, showing as a result that the integration of the Belgian Lufthansa subsidiary into Eurowings is progressing.
The integration of Lufthansa subsidiary Brussels Airlines into the Eurowings Group is getting the next step: in the long term, all new short-haul aircraft will be painted by Brussels Airlines in the colours of Eurowings, a spokeswoman for the Belgian airline has today confirmed to airliners.de.
However, the flights would still be carried out with the AOC of Brussels Airlines.
Whether the current short- and medium-haul fleet, consisting of 24 Airbus A319 and 16 Airbus A320 aircraft, will get the Eurowings livery in the long term, remains unanswered. One should remember that last week an A320 was repainted in the colours of Flemish Master Bruegel with the Brussels Airlines logo and five other aircraft have iconic Belgian designs.
The first Brussels Airlines aircraft with the Eurowings-look be an Airbus A320, which became the property of Lufthansa in the course of the Air Berlin bankruptcy. The German airline had to first make the machine available to Lauda on the basis of a stipulation of the EU competition authorities. Meanwhile, the Austrians have returned the jet to Lufthansa. From 15 June, the aircraft should take off for Brussels Airlines.
According to the spokeswoman, the reason for the unification of liveries is to develop Eurowings into a “leading pan-European airline with a strong European brand“.
Brussels Airline CEO Christina Förster said in January that the name Brussels Airlines could change in the European network – but not necessarily: “If we want to create a European platform, we cannot keep the individual brands,” according to the statement of the Brussels Airlines boss.
In previous interviews, the Lufthansa manager expressed the idea that the name Brussels was not ideal – for example, if you wanted to fly from Rome to Mallorca.
The long-haul network remains unaffected by today’s announcement. The name Brussels Airlines is rather strong in Africa (although not in the same way as its predecessor Sabena).
Lufthansa took over Brussels completely at the end of 2016 and repeatedly announced an integration in Eurowings. However, detailed planning and implementation had to be postponed because the takeover of parts of Air Berlin had priority. In the autumn of 2018, the project was revived and integration was projected for 2020.
In July of last year, a new division of responsibilities between Eurowings and Brussels was defined: While the Belgians are to act as a “competence centre” for the long-haul network, Eurowings assumes control of the short-haul business.
