new long haul fleet for Brussels Airlines?

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AirDupont
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Post by AirDupont »

Early PM flight then as the BRU-FNA rotation leaves at 1210PM.
Doubt it will be starting to fly as from the new summer season

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tolipanebas
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Post by tolipanebas »

Since the 4th plane is reportedly coming from defunct Air Madrid, it needs to be refurbished entirely to fit SN's fleet.

While SN figures out what exactly needs to be done and orders all those things from the manufacturers, the plane -which will arrive in BRU once the lease is firmed up- will apparently be used on 'ad hoc' flights (e.g. replace the Jetair 767 which was stranded in the Dominican Republic last week).

SN plans to operate the plane in scheduled service by the start of the winter season (October)....

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Avro
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Post by Avro »

Finally some good news :)

Does someone already know which plane it is from Air Madrid ?

Congratulations to SN !! Let's hope the additional A330 will bring a lot of money in the house :thumbsup:

Chris

airbuske
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Post by airbuske »

Best regards,

Airbuske

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Atlantis
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Post by Atlantis »


flyexel
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Post by flyexel »

That is some great news!!!!

Can't wait to see this new A/C...where does it come from?

It will take some 6 months but it will worth waiting for!

New destinations ???

Hommie
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Post by Hommie »

It's MSN 082 , ex Air Madrid ( EC-JTB) and flew till april 2006 with LTU.
It is a charter configuration and has about 350 seats.
Very small Galley's and no overheadbins in the middle. Also no construction to simply hang new ones. So they have to open the ceiling and make the construction. So its going to cost a bit.

But there are not many chances in the market so they finaly woke up and made a wise decision to lease this plane. :D

Hommie

Robin_Bamps

Post by Robin_Bamps »

tolipanebas wrote:Since the 4th plane is reportedly coming from defunct Air Madrid(...)
If this is true, it will be one of the following 2 A330-300's previously operated by NM :

1)
ex EC-JMF, A330-301, msn 54, f/f 24/02/1994

History :
* 02/05/1994 - 28/06/2002 EI-SHN in service with Aer Lingus
* 28/06/2002 - 27/04/2004 N54AN owned by Ansett Leasing, stored at MHV in all white
* 27/04/2004 - 27/08/2005 F-OMSA in service with Air Algerie
* 28/09/2005 - 16/12/2006 EC-JMF in service with Air Madrid
* 16/12/2006 - current : stored at BCN after NM demise

2)
ex EC-JTB, A330-322, msn 82, f/f 24/11/1994

History :
* 12/12/1994 - 13/05/2006 D-AERF in service with LTU
* 01/06/2006 - 16/12/2006 EC-JTB in service with Air Madrid
* 22/12/2006 - current : reregd EI-DVB (AerCap), stored MAD

So I hope it will be the 2nd one (msn 82) joining the SN fleet : a bit younger frame, a less turbulent operating history and not having to stand around in the desert for almost 2 years...

Regards, Robin Bamps.

Edit : In the mean time Hommie posted his message, hopefully this is true and msn 82 will effectively be the frame joining the SN fleet !

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BrightCedars
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Looks like they're after the French market

Post by BrightCedars »

If Brussels Airlines thinks it can make this work it means that they are really betting on stealing more passengers from the French market, and notably from Paris. Already their Africa flights have an almost dedicated connection service from Paris, the Montreal offering is just gonna increase that as France is a very important market for Montreal.

On the other hand, they're playing with fire as Air France/KLM are ever increasing their presence at Brussels and the fat white lady may feel offended and strike back with it's much more powerful muscle.

To me it seems they are exposing their entire intercontinental operation to Air France's nerves. A move that could prove fatal. It may be worth dumping some capacity on the Belgian market to kill off SN's long-haul operations, only to better increase prices afterwards.

AirDupont
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Post by AirDupont »

Bright Cedars,

if every smaller airline should think your way, they would stop flying.
Let's just hope that BA will be able to bring a good long haul product in the future with a positive financial result.

Goog Night

AVION1
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Post by AVION1 »

Brussels Airlines signed a letter of intent with AerCap to add a fourth A330-300 to its long-haul fleet. The aircraft belonged to Air Madrid, which suspended operations last month. Brussels' network "will not necessarily include new African destinations but possibly some destinations on the North American continent," the VP-Communications told ATWOnline. It is expected that the carrier will operate Brussels-Toronto flights, which it currently offers in codeshare with Etihad Airways. Born from the merger of SN Brussels Airlines and Virgin Express (ATWOnline, Nov. 8, 2008), Brussels Airlines officially will launch March 25. It is seeking to increase utilization of its European fleet by 10% during the summer schedule compared to the prior-year period.

ERICAIRLINES
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Post by ERICAIRLINES »

there is no market from bru to YYZ it is 85 pct yul oriented check your bsp data...

and furthermore the landing ans airport taxes in yyz are among the most expensive in the world...
And too much competition bu far,even sabena was almost nothing in TO.don't even imagine Brussels airlines ....

If they choose yyz,that will be a very big mistake...

Bos and yul are awaiting a belgian carrier for 5 years,and there sabena was doin quiet well in term of volumes and even yields for Bos...

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tolipanebas
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Post by tolipanebas »

Most probably just a reporting (or quoting) error.

Not Toronto (which is currently being served by SN through a codeshare with EY and only sees a handfull of pax board in BRU) but Montreal is the top favourite. No doubt about that.

Chances are though it will not be daily, but alternated with a flight to another destination in North America, let's assume Boston, since a daily flight to Montreal might proof to give SN too much capacity on the route (leading to extremely low filler prices) although a less than daily transatlantic route obviously would have some negative influence on the yield too.

BOS could be operated in code share with AA though, so that might make it worth to open this destination anyhow and take the yield drop on the Montreal for what is it (maybe not even that dramatic, since flights to Boston would also cut the capacity on offer on the Montreal route)

3 x Boston and 4 x Montreal a week in summer season and the other way round in the winter should maybe be the best split...

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Darjeeling
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Post by Darjeeling »

What a pleasant news !! By the way, it'll be EC-JTB. Pratt engines.

sn-remember
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Post by sn-remember »

Why not a daily rotation bru-yul-bos-bru?
Later (next year) it could be reconsidered non-stop on the 2 destis with 2 a/c.
And a third to NYK ?
Oops I am again being forgetful of hardships of life at snba :wink:
Rgding the impact of yul on the AF trafic, I think it is negligible.
Regards
Christophe

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OrientThai
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Post by OrientThai »

It is a smart move from SNBA to use this plane as a backup for their African operations so that in case of a technical problem they don't have to look for a chartered plane and avoid long delays that can go for more than a day or two. They will be able to reduce their operational instabilities on the African flights and stop loosing unhappy customers.

Flying to North America might give lower yield but it will bring more feeding traffic for SN network (SN is targeting that 50% of the traffic generated by the new route should be connecting). Although adding more flights to Africa would have strengthened SN against AF/KLM, but wouldn't have solved their operational problems.

Finally SN has made a step in the right direction...

JAFflyer
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Post by JAFflyer »

I'm a bit confused. Wasn't the technical status of Air Madrid's fleet horrible, which lead to long delays etc... On youtube there is also a video of an Air Madrid aircraft on which you can see how bad the status of the aircraft is...
Hope they know what they're doing and didn't fall to easily for the cheap price.

greetz.

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Avro
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Post by Avro »

JAFflyer wrote:I'm a bit confused. Wasn't the technical status of Air Madrid's fleet horrible, which lead to long delays etc... On youtube there is also a video of an Air Madrid aircraft on which you can see how bad the status of the aircraft is...
Hope they know what they're doing and didn't fall to easily for the cheap price.
Exactly ! As I said previously in this topic, as long as the Air Madrid plane is not like OO-TUC I don't mind. ;)

Chris

DannyVDB
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Post by DannyVDB »

Dear all,

Good news to see an additional A333 in Brussels. Will also be the first A333 in the new colors of Brussels Airlines :lol:

Read in the Standaard (Thursday) that:
- they confirm they will try to have another 2 long haul planes added to the fleet before 2010 (bu under same boundary conditions - not too expensive, ...)
- they want to increase traffic in summer period in Europe with 10% - this means additional summer destinations like ... (?) - they speak about intenser flying for the current crew and looking for additonal personnel ...

Anyone got those two issues confirmed through other sources?

Danny

BRANCOCALIENTE
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Post by BRANCOCALIENTE »

Under which AOC (VEX or SN) 'll the A330 fly?

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