On 17 April 2018, Brussels Airlines invited a few selected journalists to an informal chat with their new CEO Christina Foerster in the Zaventem restaurant Mariadal. Aviation24.be participated in that meeting.
Christina Foerster has a B.Sc. in hotel administration and an M.B.A. from American universities. She first worked for Sheraton Hotels and later for the Boston Consulting Group before joining Deutsche Lufthansa AG in 2002. She has been involved in corporate strategy, product development and above all network & fleet development. In 2014 she became Senior Vice President Network, Lufthansa Group and Alliance Development and later Senior Vice President Network and Partner Management, Lufthansa Hub Airlines.
In 2016 she joined Brussels Airlines as Chief Commercial Officer before becoming CEO on 1 April 2018. During the chat, she mentioned that she is also Deputy Chairwoman of Eurowings. Asked to whom she reported, she answered to the Board of Directors of Brussels Airlines (and thus not to the CEO of the Lufthansa Group).
Many of the discussions centred around the future of Brussels Airlines within the Eurowings group.
The name. Brussels Airlines is well known in Belgium and in Africa, but unknown in the rest of the world. This is a problem in India and North America. The brand is not very important in the mind of the passenger, much less than the Frequent Flyer programme for example. However, the decision on a name change has been pushed back, mainly because it is a highly emotional issue in Belgium.
The structure of the Lufthansa Group. Lufthansa has three large groups of activities: the network airlines, the Eurowings group and the services (LH Technik, LSG, etc.). Eurowings is the growth engine of the Lufthansa Group and the fastest growing airline in Europe today. The Eurowings group (Brussels Airlines + Eurowings) will no longer be considered as made of the “point-to-point airlines”, because it has realised that it needed connections to feed the long-haul routes, both at Brussels Airlines and Eurowings. Thus the point-to-point denomination will be abandoned.
Rationalisation of the Eurowings Group. It is inevitable that rationalisation must occur between Brussels and Cologne. However, Christina Foerster says that Eurowings’ headquarters are not in Cologne, but both in Brussels and Cologne. The aim is not to put all the back offices in Germany, nor in Belgium, but to maximise the strengths and the opportunities.
The financial environment. For most European airlines, short-haul flights are unprofitable and used mainly to feed the very profitable long-haul network. This situation tends to change as the long-haul business is coming under pressure: Brussels Airlines has to compete with Air France and new entrants in Africa, the transatlantic market is a bloodbath. The growth of Brussels Airlines is satisfactory, but the problem is the pressure on prices. Hence, it is necessary that all business segments, including short-haul, become profitable. The first figures for 2018 look good in that respect; the market is coming back and the integration of Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium’s leisure network is also an important factor (better use of the aircraft). The night stops are still a huge financial cost that low-cost companies like Ryanair can avoid. The Eurowings Group is studying solutions to that problem.
SN market share in Brussels. The SN market share at Brussels Airport is too small, compared to other LH Group airlines in their respective hubs. This is especially true for the long-haul. Christina’s experience in network development will certainly help.
Extension of the network. Foerster wishes to extend the African network. The choice between Brussels and Dusseldorf will be dictated by the market: from where do the passengers want to fly? One difficulty is the need to fill 300 seats in an A330. As many airlines, SN is looking into the A321LR. The cooperation with Thomas Cook does not yet extend to long-haul (because of that need to fill the planes), but this is not excluded in the future.
Pan-European ambitions of the LH Group. The Lufthansa Group wants to be present everywhere in Europe. The brings us back to the name: what’s the interest of having Brussels Airlines bases in e.g. France or The Netherlands? A “European” name would probably be preferable.
Management style. Christina Foerster firmly believes in teamwork and relies on her staff. She also stressed the difficulty for a woman to reach to the top, but relies more on the ideas of a person than in his/her gender.