Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

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Conti764
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by Conti764 »

sn26567 wrote: 14 Jul 2020, 18:00
Conti764 wrote: 14 Jul 2020, 17:54 The satellite is earmarked to hold several government services (customs, federal police,...) Afaik nothing has been decided yet but it is an option to replace BAC in the future. Ground-level is already occupied by police and a small customs office.
I thought that police was in an office next to the Sheraton?
Only a part of the police and back in 2009 it was already a temporary solution.

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Atlantis
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by Atlantis »

Conti764 wrote: 14 Jul 2020, 17:55
Atlantis wrote: 14 Jul 2020, 14:31 Short update.

1) in meantime the front facade is receiving its new glass and tiles front. The same style as the renewed side wall and the Deloite building. It really looks very nice.
Only partially, no? I assume deliveries are affected by Covid...?
Some construction works were affected bcs of Corona like the maintenance on the runway could not be done earlier e.g. April or May bcs of Corona and also the replacing of the bridges on Pier-B were affected bcs of Corona.

The front facade now will be done in full, not partially

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Atlantis
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by Atlantis »

Conti764 wrote: 14 Jul 2020, 17:54
sn26567 wrote: 14 Jul 2020, 16:20
Atlantis wrote: 14 Jul 2020, 14:31 Short update.

1) in meantime the front facade is receiving its new glass and tiles front. The same style as the renewed side wall and the Deloite building. It really looks very nice.

2) our new office building is also in good progress. 9 levels high and will replace the satellite building and departments who are sitting in the Passport Building.

3) also under this new admin building the new baggage facility is under construction.
Great. I always considered it as a stupid move to change the satellite into office space when it can accommodate boarding gates. I fondly remember boarding Sabena 747s to the US from the satellite.
The satellite is earmarked to hold several government services (customs, federal police,...) Afaik nothing has been decided yet but it is an option to replace BAC in the future. Ground level is already occupied by police and a small customs office.
No, all departments or all admin offices has to go out of the satellite. The satellite will be, as time will be ready, again only for pax. All other services will have their own building

Boavida
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by Boavida »

Atlantis wrote: 14 Jul 2020, 22:29
The front facade now will be done in full, not partially
Question: will the entire front facade (part 1 + 2 on below image) get a new, unified design/look, or only the oldest part (2)?

Image

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Conti764
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by Conti764 »

Boavida wrote: 14 Jul 2020, 23:07
Atlantis wrote: 14 Jul 2020, 22:29
The front facade now will be done in full, not partially
Question: will the entire front facade (part 1 + 2 on below image) get a new, unified design/look, or only the oldest part (2)?

Image
Oldest part only.

Will have the same tiles as Gateway and Passport and roughly the same windows and cantilever as the other terminal.

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Atlantis
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by Atlantis »

Boavida wrote: 14 Jul 2020, 23:07
Atlantis wrote: 14 Jul 2020, 22:29
The front facade now will be done in full, not partially
Question: will the entire front facade (part 1 + 2 on below image) get a new, unified design/look, or only the oldest part (2)?

Image
The oldest part will receive the new look. This is also the old terminal and much more needed. Old tiles, concrete and old shining yellow glass. The first part received new glass after the attacks and is mainly in glass. This is how the plans are for the moment

Boavida
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by Boavida »

As expected.....

Such a pity they don't use this opportunity to create a great new, unified design for the entire front facade. Now it's again typically Belgian: different styles of 'koterijen' (sorry for the word ;) ) next to each other. We'll never learn I'm afraid.

Jetter
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by Jetter »

Boavida wrote: 14 Jul 2020, 23:22 As expected.....

Such a pity they don't use this opportunity to create a great new, unified design for the entire front facade. Now it's again typically Belgian: different styles of 'koterijen' (sorry for the word ;) ) next to each other. We'll never learn I'm afraid.
I had too look up 'koterijen', but after seeing the first picture I get what you mean. :)
Image

Boavida
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by Boavida »

^^ Haha, exactly! :lol:


On a sidenote: with the Swissport bankruptcy, will it be possible to demolish this old and ugly building (next to the bus station) more rapidly now?

Image

I have said it before: this is the IDEAL place to build a new, modern terminal !

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Atlantis
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by Atlantis »

This building is empty for already many years

flightlover
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by flightlover »

Atlantis wrote: 17 Jul 2020, 21:53 This building is empty for already many years
It looked empty, yes, but the Swissport cleaning and handling services where based there. Not that visible from the street, but very much so from the tarmac side. They installed blinds at the west side of the connector to hide the ground equipment parking area behind this building. At this moment it is also the building/parking area where the auction items are stored after the bankruptcy of these services.

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Conti764
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by Conti764 »

It seems like many people are underestimating the effect of Covid on BAC's books. I can imagine them not investing heavily the coming years...

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Atlantis
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by Atlantis »

Conti764 wrote: 18 Jul 2020, 12:09 It seems like many people are underestimating the effect of Covid on BAC's books. I can imagine them not investing heavily the coming years...
Indeed. In the latest meeting on Friday the economical unemployment for all BAC employees is prolonged till the end of this year!!! Only 2 days working per week.

There is a huge loss for this year and the figures are absolutely not good

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Atlantis
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by Atlantis »

flightlover wrote: 18 Jul 2020, 00:15
Atlantis wrote: 17 Jul 2020, 21:53 This building is empty for already many years
It looked empty, yes, but the Swissport cleaning and handling services where based there. Not that visible from the street, but very much so from the tarmac side. They installed blinds at the west side of the connector to hide the ground equipment parking area behind this building. At this moment it is also the building/parking area where the auction items are stored after the bankruptcy of these services.
They were only sitting in a part of that huge building.
The biggest part, which was also used for offices, is already empty for many years

Passenger
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by Passenger »

Let’s go back to that hearing in the Belgian Parliament (Commissie Mobiliteit / Commission Mobilité) on 7th July, subject “the future of Brussels Airport after the Covid-19 pandemy”.

These are some of the remarks from Arnaud Feist, CEO Brussels Airport, about future investments:

Introduction:

- the absence of a legal frame for the airport is hampering growth;
- our noise efforts: by 2023, we’ll charge x 3 up to x 20 for loud aircraft;
- modern generation aircraft like B787 and A350 improve noise and fuel efficiency;
- the airport itself is CO² neutral.

Recent serious setbacks:
- Swissport bankruptcy;
- Brussels Airlines restructuration;
- Lagardere Travel Retail (tax free shops) restructuration.

For 2020, we’ll expect 200M loss. Luckily our previous results give us a a solid financial reserve.

On 15th June: restart, but it will take 3-4 years to get to the 2019 level. Aviation was the first one to be hit, and we’ll be the last one to recover. Uncertainly for passengers: it is safe, will I have to go into quarantaine on location? Or at the return?

Temporary unemployment: now we are at some 70%, reducing to 50% in September. So extended beyond 31/08 is needed (edit Passenger: on 15/07, minister Muylle has announced via Twitter that temporary unemployment will be extended till 31/12, but it’s not known yet if aviation is entitled to it).

We need a level playing field within Europe, so we don’t understand some decisions from the Belgian government for long haul. Example: AMS-Montreal is now allowed, BRU-Montreal is not.

BRU is a hub thanks to SN, which generates 40% of our traffic. Lufthansa and Star are important for us. Example: a Tokyo-Kinshasa is Tokyo-Brussels/Brussels-Kinshasa.

These 2 partnerships allow us to get more connections without us having to look for new destinations. So we really need SN and Star to guarantee the hub.

Remember: after the Sabena bankruptcy, it took us 12 years to re-establish the intercontinental network. A repeat would almost be impossible now.

On 8th June, Swissport went bankrupt. We do feel sorry for the employees, and we had make a last minute offer to the Swissport Group to support them. But apparently the decision was already made.

A tender takes 12-15 months, that’s too long to operate with one handling agent. But thanks to new European legislation, we were allowed to give a temporary licence to Alyzia. If possible, Alyzia employs ex Swissport staff. But it’s not easy, with only 6 months contracts. On top, some of the Swisport clients have moved to Aviapartner.

A tender for a second handler has now started, with references for us not finances, but more for quality, safety, organization, planning.

72% of the airport jobs are fulltime jobs, 39% are arbeiders/ouvriers.

An aviation law is a priority. Clear it out for airlines and for the neighbours. Officialize the routes. And then, we can isolate houses.

Today, without an aviation law, disputes end in court. And without an aviation law, it’s judges discretion.

Noise & wind may cause that one person complains about a flight on a certain day, but not for the same flight by the same aircraft the next day.

When a pilot now respects the instructions by skyes, he/she may be fined by the Brussels Capital Region. And not respecting skyes will lead to loss of his/her licence. We cannot explain this to foreign airlines. It damages our growth possibilities.

Our capacity varies from 50 to 74 flights per hour, depending on which runway in use.

Railways: it has improved, but not good enough. We are ready for high speed, we have contacted Thalys.

A general mobility plan should include this connection. And a direct exit Ring-to-Airport could lead to less traffic ingestion at the Ring.

We don’t ask subsidies, but please give us a legal frame.

Answers to the questions:

On short term, we need:
1. extension of temporary employment, till normal level operations;
2 a level playing field in Europe for international flights = to avoid unfair competition between EU airports;
3. we hope to secure the hub function of SN – we hope that their negociations will finalize soon.

More in general:
1. we need an aviation law - a legal frame;
2. we need a HST connection;
3. we need to get better airways capacity (25L).

A prognosis for 2021 is difficult: we don’t know yet how pax will behave.

Our 3 year average (+24M pax) could have given us a third handler for the next reference period. But now, with the setback, we’re again at minus 24M average.

Strange: European legislation says “minimum 2 handlers”. Belgian legislation says “maximum 2 handlers”. Who has made a typo error?

We prefer more then 2 because corona shows that a duopoly leads to problems, and even to a monopoly.

Till a few years ago, Swissport (operating as Flightcare) and Aviapartner were both viable. But then, a price war started (I abstain to comment wo started), causing both to loose. For Swissport, it’s final.

Brussels Airport has supported both SwP and AvP financially; discount on services, free offices location (SwP accepted, AvP not).

Why don’t we do it? We’ve discussed it, but soon concluded it’s specialized business. We cannot be better then Swissport, number 1 or 2 worldwide. So after the bankruptcy, we have looked for someone who could step in on short notice. Alyzia: I trust them. But they know it’s only for 6 months. So what about offering a normal employment contract? Not easy for them.

We were in discussion with Swissport HQ till the weekend before the bankruptcy announcement. Everything they asked, we admitted.

We are at only 10% normal capacity now, so don’t expect that Alizia will employ all former Swissport staff.

Do we make too much profit - do we have too much bling bling? No. We invest. We invest on all levels: connector, runway improvement, dep/arr hall. We have invested more then 1 Bn recently. We’ve increased the number of employees.

We regard our clients as business partners. We hope they make profit. If they grow, we grow.

CO² : since 2018 we are CO² neutral. By 2050 we want to be CO² zero emission. As a private company, we are not allowed to forbit access to our airport for fuel consuming aircraft, when they are allowed by Europe. But we will charge them an overtax: at this moment it’s factor 3, by 2022 it will be factor 20.

Sustanibily climate change will become more important. Covid will not stop this.

NMBS Infrabel : we need a HST operator. Thalys said thanks for the offer, but BRU is no priority for us. I’m not paranoia, but the government of France is behind Thalys, so they prefer that Thalys uses French airports (or a AF/KL airport). As long as France rules there, no opportunity for us.

Is Brussels Airport too close to Brussels? No, many EU airports are also close to their city. We cannot survive as a city airport, our infrastructure is too wide for that. A city airport cannot handle long haul. We want to become “an airport city”: aviation activity extended to an airport business city with offices coming to us because of our excellent connectivity to rail (and soon tramways). Example: Deloitte and KPMG. We want to expand our logistics, alsof of non airfreight cargo at Brucargo.

Financial situation? We expect 400M less turnover this year, resulting in 200M nett loss. Huge? Yes, but more important it makes us difficult for us to help partners in distress. But yet we help the airlines with a discount. We will survive the crisis, if the crisis lasts for max 1 to 1,5 Y. We hope that a second corona wave will not hamper us.

All our large investments have been put on hold because of the lockdown. After the lockdown, ongoing investments are back on track. Example: when construction for a building has started, we’ll finish it. But we’ll have 50% less investment in 2020 then we had budgetted. For 2021 it’s even 60-70% less.

A solid cash position is important now: we want to avoid a restructuration.

(en toen was er koffie).

ezis_bis
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by ezis_bis »

Is there already an idea when the Brussels Airlines Lounges will open ? It already is the case in Tallinn and Warsaw, so I would expect Brussels can't lag behind

Boavida
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by Boavida »

At CRL, things are moving. New entrance infrastructure:

Image

Image

Nothing spectacular but... compare this to the 'grand entrance' of BRU. :o Messy and ugly. Does this even look like an airport? People have to walk through a tent(!) to pass the ugly busstation to finally get to a small door to enter the airport. My local containerpark looks better.

Image

"The heart of Europe", ladies and gentlemen. Nothing is done here, there isn't even a plan (apart from some 2040(!) fantasy vision). It's shameful.



THIS is how modern airport infrastructure should look like:

Image

I wonder does Arnaud Feist ever visits other airports?

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Conti764
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by Conti764 »

Boavida wrote: 21 Dec 2020, 21:08 At CRL, things are moving. New entrance infrastructure:

Image

Image

Nothing spectacular but... compare this to the 'grand entrance' of BRU. :o Messy and ugly. Does this even look like an airport? People have to walk through a tent(!) to pass the ugly busstation to finally get to a small door to enter the airport. My local containerpark looks better.

Image

"The heart of Europe", ladies and gentlemen. Nothing is done here, there isn't even a plan (apart from some 2040(!) fantasy vision). It's shameful.



THIS is how modern airport infrastructure should look like:

Image

I wonder does Arnaud Feist ever visits other airports?
Quite unfair. If you want to compare entrances, take BRU's terminal buildings as example and not this temporary infrastructure which makes the tents actually a good thing. If it was more than temporary a more definitive construction would have been build.

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Atlantis
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by Atlantis »

Conti764 wrote: 23 Dec 2020, 07:59
Boavida wrote: 21 Dec 2020, 21:08 At CRL, things are moving. New entrance infrastructure:

Image

Image

Nothing spectacular but... compare this to the 'grand entrance' of BRU. :o Messy and ugly. Does this even look like an airport? People have to walk through a tent(!) to pass the ugly busstation to finally get to a small door to enter the airport. My local containerpark looks better.

Image

"The heart of Europe", ladies and gentlemen. Nothing is done here, there isn't even a plan (apart from some 2040(!) fantasy vision). It's shameful.



THIS is how modern airport infrastructure should look like:

Image

I wonder does Arnaud Feist ever visits other airports?
Quite unfair. If you want to compare entrances, take BRU's terminal buildings as example and not this temporary infrastructure which makes the tents actually a good thing. If it was more than temporary a more definitive construction would have been build.
Exactly. If you want to compare its indeed with the real entrance buildings and not the drop off zone.
BTW the facade is now also completely refreshed. The old looking is completely removed and is in the style of the Deloitte building.

It's also extremely low regarding the personal attack on Mr Feist. What do you think by yourself Boavida???

Boavida
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Re: Brussels Airport (BRU) infrastructure: future

Post by Boavida »

Conti764 wrote: 23 Dec 2020, 07:59 Quite unfair. If you want to compare entrances, take BRU's terminal buildings as example and not this temporary infrastructure which makes the tents actually a good thing. If it was more than temporary a more definitive construction would have been build.
It's not unfair. This IS the entrance area for all passengers who are dropped off, arrive by bus or taxi. That is a LOT of pax! They never see the exterior of the departure hall due to this "temporary" drop off zone. Temporary since 2016 and probably here to stay for many, many years to come. So not so temporary...
Atlantis wrote: 23 Dec 2020, 10:29 It's also extremely low regarding the personal attack on Mr Feist. What do you think by yourself Boavida???
Oh come on. This is not a personal attack. Just a question regarding the fact that, I hope, the CEO realises the way this looks is not acceptable for an airport as BRU in the 21st century. Still haven't seen the slightest plan to modernise the area. And I'm afraid Corona will be the perfect excuse to delay things even further... :|

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