Brussels Airlines flight SN465 has a triangular route from Brussels to Kigali, continuing to Entebbe before returning to Brussels.
On 2 February, bad weather conditions (snow and reduced visibility) delayed most flights at Brussels Airport. The de-icing operations, in particular, were quite slow. Therefore, flight SN465, operated by Airbus A330-200 reg. OO-SFT, departed with a delay of 4 hours, at 14:15 instead of 10:15.
Brussels Airlines spokeswoman Wencke Lemmes confirmed to Aviation24.be that, because of the extended duty time limitations, the crew of SN465 could not have reached Entebbe in time after an intermediate stop in Kigali. Therefore, the operations department decided to send the flight directly to Entebbe, where it landed at 22:53, approximately its normal time of arrival. Passengers to Kigali were separated into two groups, one that was able to continue on the available seats of a RwandAir flight to Kigali (WB465, a Q400), and the other which made the 8 to 10 hours road trip on a comfortable bus.
Passengers from Kigali to Brussels were rebooked on alternative flights.
Flight SN465 departed from Entebbe at 01:25 on 3 February with a delay of 1 hour 30 minutes and arrived at Brussels Airport at 07:15, some 40 minutes late.
I was on this flight, and was also lucky enough to enjoy the beauty of the Ugandan countryside from the seats of the “comfortable bus”. So comfortable that I actually decided to enjoy it for 12 hours, instead of just 8-10.
Anyway, we did reach Kigali eventually. The next day (night) and with a total delay of 30 hours…
Thank you Brussels Airlines!! Good job!
What baffles me is that they knew (or should have known) since the plane left Brussels what was going to happen, and this is the best solution they came up with.
Thanks for your testimony. It sheds some light on what happened after the flight.