Where can Brussels Airlines find extra Long-haul widebodies?

FLY4HOURS.BE · Post by **FLY4HOURS.BE** » 20 Sep 2007, 13:34

I will start:
-Garuda has got 2 A333's stored (MSN 140 & 144).
-LTU are selling their old A333's progressively (OO-SFW is ex-LTU) and still has 3 of them.
-HiFly is operating only one A333... and I don't know how active it is

Other options:
-SN seems to like the A333 but other options are possible:
More and more B743's & B744's become available on the market and it would be great for the day flights to/from Kinshasa as slot numbers are limited... If the feeders over there work out ok, it should be no problem to fill them, plus the cargo capabilites are interesting! Seen the greater availability over the A333 and the smaller demand, they can have great bargains.

TWA · Post by **TWA** » 20 Sep 2007, 14:18

LH placed a new order of A333's and quite a few of them will go to LX in order to replace gradually their A332's (luchtvaartnieuws.nl) What about the A332?

FLY4HOURS.BE · Post by **FLY4HOURS.BE** » 20 Sep 2007, 14:20

A332 could work too, although it has 15% less capacity than the A333...

euroflyer · Post by **euroflyer** » 20 Sep 2007, 15:45

TWA wrote:LH placed a new order of A333's and quite a few of them will go to LX in order to replace gradually their A332's (luchtvaartnieuws.nl) What about the A332?

Yeah, but one rumour says they might already be promised to Air ONE, LH's partner in Italy, to increase competition towards Alitalia ...

We can see once more it is not that easy to get your hands on a not too old plane if you are not part of a wider alliance or at least partnership with the bigger airlines and if you cannot afford just to buy another 10 or 20 brandnew planes like LH or AF can rather easily ...

SN1203 · Post by **SN1203** » 20 Sep 2007, 21:21

FLY4HOURS.BE wrote:More and more B743's & B744's become available on the market and it would be great for the day flights to/from Kinshasa as slot numbers are limited...

:wow:

You'd be fired pretty quickly with this kind of proposals

Ever considered that the A333 is perhaps the type of plane that best fits SN's longhaul operations?

Established02 · Post by **Established02** » 20 Sep 2007, 22:20

SN1203 wrote:
FLY4HOURS.BE wrote:More and more B743's & B744's become available on the market and it would be great for the day flights to/from Kinshasa as slot numbers are limited...
You'd be fired pretty quickly with this kind of proposals Ever considered that the A333 is perhaps the type of plane that best fits SN's longhaul operations?

Hello SN1203, I trust you know very well what you're talking about.

What would be the main parameters based on which you can quickly dismiss the possible use of a 747 to Central Africa?

I assume that the direct operating costs may be way too high (1.5 x those of the A333?), pax capacity too high for SN currently, extra costs due to additional aircraft type in the fleet, etc...

Thanks

FLY4HOURS.BE · Post by **FLY4HOURS.BE** » 21 Sep 2007, 01:51

Yeah you guys are right but the idea is that you can acquire B743's at almost the same price as an A333 due to low demand.

A 2-class config can carry 50% to 65% more pax than an A333. This is too much but we got to think long-term. The A333 are almost always fully booked now already and the slots at BRU are limited to 6. If the feeders in Kinshasa work out alright, they are gonna have a lack of capacity on the long-haul's.
+if they order Embraer's next year, their European network might start to be profitable, so reinforcing the African routes even more!

It is true that having an additional type might cost a bit more, but SN has already 5 types of aircraft in their fleet

If they can fill a B743 or even better a B744, operating costs will be way less than an A333, as they will be able to carry as many pax as they are carrying now in 3 A333 flights, in only 2 flights.

It's a bit unrealistic but it's a possibility.

Cheers