Belgian Government: 1 A330 will replace the A310's

[sn26567]

According to "De Morgen", the A330 has flown only 1.050 hours in 2010, and 1.162 hours in 2011. Without any rebate in the cost of the lease, of course.

At least he Army will have saved on fuel.

[WC_EEND]

Does the A330 actually frequently fly missions that require the lifting power of an A330, or is it mostly used for stuff an A32X ACJ or 737 BBJ can do just as well?

[Passenger]

Does the A330 actually frequently fly missions that require the lifting power of an A330, or is it mostly used for stuff an A32X ACJ or 737 BBJ can do just as well?

Main purpose is to transport Belgian troops to foreign peace missions (i.e. to/from Afghanistan).

The HiFly is also used every now and then for a Belgian trade mission - specially when someone of the royal family joins the party.

So mass transport indeed (200 pax or more).

[Desert Rat]

Knowing that a 330 is flying an average of 5000 hours per year....hifly makes very good business as they have a yearly contract with quite a low utilisation, meaning they keep the A/C with low cycles.

[Passenger]

There is some news about CS-TMT: at the end of the year, the leasing contract ends. There was a discussion in the Defence commission from the Belgian parliament today. The discussion was asked by a MP of the Flemish language group, so the minister replied in Dutch only. For those who don't understand it, please copy/paste the text and ask translate.google.com:

http://www.dekamer.be/doc/CCRI/html/53/ic714x.html - check question n° 3
oh yes, and the President of the Belgian Parliament orders that this remark is added: "please note this is only a provisional report"

Most relevant remarks from the minister of Defence: the Belgian Air Force needs a replacement for the A330, there will be a European tender for the replacement of the Avico/HiFly lease contract, the draft of this tender contract will be presented at next Friday's goverment meeting.

("needs a replacement": could be of course that CS-TMT is the replacement)

[Boavida]

It's funny (or better: sad) that the government pays 11 million a year for this lease, while they can't even put "Belgian Air Force" on the plane. The titles were removed short after the presentation in 2009...

Practically all countries have government planes with the name of the country on it, we have an untitled 'white' plane. And even pay (a lease) for it.

[b-west]

Well, it's true that the Belgian Air Force titles have been removed, but the livery is still there, with the army logo on the tail and the big Belgian flag over the top of the fuselage. So I wouldn't call it white. Is there a reason why the titles got removed?

[Boavida]

It got removed because the plane sometimes carried out flights for other (commercial) companies. I know they did fly once for Brussels Airlines. It would be a bit strange for passengers boarding an SN plane to see "Belgian Air Force" on it...

That's the trouble when you lease a plane. You don't own the plane so if the owner (HiFly) decides to fly it somewhere else, there's nothing the BAF can do.

So it would be better if the army BUYS 1 or 2 planes to replace this A330. On the website of the Defence minister Pieter De Crem this was published about the A330 (in Dutch):

Meerjarig contract voor een luchttransportcapaciteit op lange afstand

De vervanging van de huidige transportcapaciteit op Airbus A330 kadert in de behoefte aan strategisch luchttransport van Defensie. De toestellen ter invulling van deze capaciteit moeten op een flexibele manier inzetbaar zijn om bijna uitsluitend operationele taken uit te voeren over lange afstanden. Momenteel beschikt Defensie hiervoor dus over een ‘wide body’ toestel, de A330. Studies hebben aangetoond dat een ‘narrow body’ toestel een groot deel van de huidige geplande opdrachten zou kunnen uitvoeren. Een groot deel van de vereiste diensten zou dus door een vliegtuig van het laatste type kunnen worden uitgevoerd, wat de kosten ervan zal doen dalen.

Bovendien is de nood aan toestellen van het type ‘narrow body’ ook zeer hoog binnen het EATC (European Air Transport Command), een internationaal samenwerkingsverband volgens het concept ‘Pooling & Sharing’, waar de Belgische Defensie ook deel van uitmaakt.

So it looks like they're going to replace the A330 with 2 long distance narrow-body planes. The best (only) choice would be the B757. The New Zealand Air Force also uses them:


Btw, I like this grey color. Much more stylish than the current white fleet of the BAF...

[Tomskii]

Would be nice to see those at BRU!

[Boavida]

Just imagine...