This morning at 10:45 (UTC +2), an extraordinary works council will take place at the headquarters of Brussels Airlines. Management should announce measures to improve the dramatic situation of parent Eurowings and their consequences for Brussels Airlines. Simultaneously, Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr is briefing financial analysts in Germany and tell them that the integration of Brussels Airlines into Eurowings is no longer pursued: Brussels Airlines joins the Network Airlines.
On Sunday 16 June, the Executive Board of the Lufthansa Group revised its financial outlook for the full year 2019 after a disastrous first quarter of 2019: on 1 May, the Lufthansa Group announced a first-quarter Adjusted EBIT to EUR -336 million. At low-cost subsidiary Eurowings, the first-quarter results were even worse than the previous year: the Adjusted EBIT declined to EUR ?257 million (prior-year period: EUR -212 million)
From the press release (16 June): “At Eurowings, unit revenues are expected to decline significantly in the second quarter of 2019. In the full year, they are forecasted to decrease at a mid-single-digit rate. As the progress in streamlining the Eurowings cost base is also slower than expected, the Eurowings Management has resolved upon further turnaround measures which it will present shortly.”
14:36 Eurowings cuts long-haul business; full focus on short-haul point-to-point operations
13:13 In the meeting with the union members, Brussels Airlines CEO Christina Foerster added a few key sentences:
12:59 Green union LBC – CNE: “The identity and the specificity of Brussels Airlines are recognized by the LH group mangagement. Brussels Airlines will look for optimizations and savings and look at synergies within the Lufthansa Group.
We will be a regular airline carrier again: still fighting low cost and optimize our Long-Haul network.”
12:45 In January 2018, editor in chief of aviation24.be André Orban wrote: “from the beginning, along with many others, I considered that integration into Eurowings was a major mistake and that Brussels Airlines should have received the same status as SWISS and Austrian Airlines, that of network airlines, because of the place of the Brussels hub and the importance of the African network requiring feeder flights (which is also the case for the North American flights). The ambition should have been to rebuild Sabena’s glorious network, not to participate in a low-cost construction.”
12:28 “Of course the headlines are focused on the Eurowings integration being called off, but at the same time a ‘turn around plan’ has been announced for Q3.”
Forum member Dev7
12:25 Forum topic: Brussels Airlines in 2019
12:00 VRT NWS journalist Riadh Bahri says: “German CEO Christina Foerster clearly pushed to keep the brand name Brussels Airlines!”
11:45 Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr said: “Eurowings will focus on Germany first. Many German cities need services.”
11:00 During the extraordinary meeting, Brussels Airlines CEO Christina Foerster said: “we are divorcing from Eurowings, a happy single. But we really need to go to the gym.”
10:48
10:36 Brussels Airlines staff: “an extraordinary works council just before the start of the busy July and August Summer season, that’s worrying.”
This post was published on 24 June 2019 10:09
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