Brussels Airlines future and financial perspective

[nordikcam]

Thx Inquirer...

[Bralo20]

Oh sorry, didn't have access to l'Echo. Since both papers are sisterpapers and virtually published the same time I wrongfully assumed they had the same information. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!

[Atlantis]

The same article in Flemish: http://www.tijd.be/nieuws/archief/Bruss ... 20airlines

I've checked both links, but the article in L'echo isn't the same at all, Bralo20: the article is a long interview with their CEO! I don't know if they will also publish it in De Tijd, but I hope so: it's worth reading for sure if you have access to their website(s).

A few interesting take-outs from the interview (according to me, at least):

* some 215 directly employed staff will be needed for the new flights to India

* Indian cabin crew will be used too on these flights (coming from Air India?)

* Nigeria is still on the agenda: it was not an 'or-or' decision to go for Bombay

* Works with Belgocontrol are under way to prioritize those flights which have importance for the hub

* "Boarding passes need to be send automatically to passengers, not simply reminders to self check-in"

Indeed Inquirer,

I also can add this. New Delphi is now completely off the radar of SN. If BRU wants New Delphi again in the portfolio than it has to come with Air India.

As second, Nigeria is indeed still in the scope.

The question will be. Will the next destination comes from Africa or The States. I can tell that Boston is high on the agenda as new destination but that it will not come from the current American carriers on the BRU tarmac. So the eyes are again on SN as possible carrier to Boston.

2017 will be a very interesting year for BRU when we look at new long haul destinations and carriersNot only for SN but also a few foreign ones. If they will keep their promises than we will see a lot of new long haul destinations.

[DannyVDB]

2017 will be a very interesting year for BRU when we look at new long haul destinations and carriersNot only for SN but also a few foreign ones. If they will keep their promises than we will see a lot of new long haul destinations.

This sounds interesting, but 2017 is not that far away. Announcements should be made soon if they want to start e.g. beginning of the summer season.

Danny

[nordikcam]

Nigeria is indeed still in the scope.

The question will be. Will the next destination comes from Africa or The States. I can tell that Boston is high on the agenda as new destination but that it will not come from the current American carriers on the BRU tarmac. So the eyes are again on SN as possible carrier to Boston.

2017 will be a very interesting year for BRU when we look at new long haul destinations and carriersNot only for SN but also a few foreign ones. If they will keep their promises than we will see a lot of new long haul destinations.

Lagos, Boston on the top of the agenda...and I suppose the 11th Airbus...in 2017 ??

[crew1990]

Boston, Lagos and not forget Libreville which will be in the same rotation than Lagos, I just wonder which one will come first.

Boston seems to me more logical as it would be a good idea to reinforce the north atlantic flight in order to make mumbai profitable.

But in the other hand it makes quite a long time that SN haven't expended in Africa as the last expansion was Toronto and Mumbai

[GlennOST]

As TUI Fly is once more downgrading it's product more people should find Brussels Airlines.

The only advantage why you would book TUI is gone (cheap pet transport / free bagage).

And what before was not so bad..... ( extra stops for example OST - LGG - LPA / OST - TFS - LPA ) because price/service is now an extra bonus to avoid this airline.

Brussels Airlines should become more aggressive to get those TUI customers.

[A330]

Even though Africa is SN's core business (long haul that is), with some trans-Atlantic support, it is striking that almost all of the expansion in the last 4-5 years was elsewhere.
Yes, they swapped ACC and NBO, and added some frequencies here and there. But that is in contrast to their expansion elsewhere. They started JFK and IAD, YYZ this year, and summer season 2017 will see the introduction of BOM.
We can speculate them flying more to the USA, like BOS, additional flights to JFK or EWR, or SFO further down the line. But it would be Nice to see them focus on Africa again with their next long-haul destination.
On the other hand, were the transatlantic destinations essential in order to further expand in Africa, in other words were they at their limit without feed?

[Flanker2]

Imo BOS is a non-starter, stray away. But in reality, I can see SN going for it, even more so under EW.
LOS and LBV should be a priority, but knowing SN, it will be for 2018. If LH is at all interested in having internal competition.

[JustPlanes]

Having been stationed in Boston for Sabena for 10 years... and still living here now... I would say this... everyone and their mother started Boston in the last year... SAS, WOW, TAP, Eurowings, Air Berlin, Thomas Cook, Norwegian, Turkish as well as Emirates, Qatar etc... Add to that frequency.. we see Icelandair up to 3x a day, British up to 4, Aer Lingus 3-4, Sata 2x and so on... Right now this is not the place to start operations when you're flying right down the road to JFK & IAD. Why not pick a destination that has little competition... such as DEN.. with great connections on United all over the place! Once SN has a number of US routes doing well they can consider BOS and by then the International terminal will have a much needed expansion...

[skumfiduse]

Even though I am excited about Brussels Airlines' announcement on Mumbai, I wonder when we might see some EMEA (Europe/Middle-East/Africa) expansion.

Talking about business destinations, what are the chances of a direct connection with Helsinki, Bergen, Stavanger and Riga. The latter has been operated last year in light of the EU Presidency. Could a lower frequency than daily and/or smaller capacity than Avrojet work?

When it comes to purely leisure destinations, what are the chances of Keflavik, Belgrade, Skopje, Sarajevo, Innsbruck, Salzburg in Europe and Tehran?

[AIRMARSHAL]

When it comes to purely leisure destinations, what are the chances of Keflavik, Belgrade, Skopje, Sarajevo, Innsbruck, Salzburg in Europe and Tehran?

I was also thinking about that my friend,
still waiting for SN to start BRU SZG and BRU INN during winterseason, or maybe transavia will start the route from BRU, who knows? Transavia's AMS/RTM/EIN --> SZG/INN flights are becomming overpopular , hard to get a reasonably low priced seat on those flights.

[Flanker2]

Having been stationed in Boston for Sabena for 10 years... and still living here now... I would say this... everyone and their mother started Boston in the last year... SAS, WOW, TAP, Eurowings, Air Berlin, Thomas Cook, Norwegian, Turkish as well as Emirates, Qatar etc... Add to that frequency.. we see Icelandair up to 3x a day, British up to 4, Aer Lingus 3-4, Sata 2x and so on... Right now this is not the place to start operations when you're flying right down the road to JFK & IAD. Why not pick a destination that has little competition... such as DEN.. with great connections on United all over the place! Once SN has a number of US routes doing well they can consider BOS and by then the International oterminal will have a much needed expansion...

I've been saying this for years. No BOS but DEN instead.
They just don't get it. Everything they decide seems to be based on simulated and statistical traffic flows. Everybody wants to fly to SFO and BOS nowadays because they use the same software simulations.
The only routes that SN are making money consistently is where they drop the software and chase their gut feelings, ie Africa.

[skumfiduse]

When it comes to purely leisure destinations, what are the chances of Keflavik, Belgrade, Skopje, Sarajevo, Innsbruck, Salzburg in Europe and Tehran?

I was also thinking about that my friend,
still waiting for SN to start BRU SZG and BRU INN during winterseason, or maybe transavia will start the route from BRU, who knows? Transavia's AMS/RTM/EIN --> SZG/INN flights are becomming overpopular , hard to get a reasonably low priced seat on those flights.

Salzburg to be served by sister Eurowings coming winter.

Source (in German): https://www.eurowings.com/de/4u/unterne ... zburg.html

[AIRMARSHAL]

Great news ! thx for sharing

[Thomaaas]

I've been saying this for years. No BOS but DEN instead.
They just don't get it. Everything they decide seems to be based on simulated and statistical traffic flows. Everybody wants to fly to SFO and BOS nowadays because they use the same software simulations.
The only routes that SN are making money consistently is where they drop the software and chase their gut feelings, ie Africa.

Imo, DEN would make no sense. Only two EU airlines currently can make DEN work (Lufthansa and British), so I don't see how SN could make it work honestly. The connections of UA are the only advantage of DEN. Denver itself is not interesting at all for the tourism industry, and for business SFO and IAH make way more sense. BOS is booming right now, and maybe you are right: a lot of EU airlines are flying to BOS but they can all make it work. I personally think that either BOS or SFO should be the next US destination for SN. Maybe SFO would be better because BRU is already well connected to the East Coast, while there are no direct flights to the West Coast.

[SkyTourist]

On the BOS perspectives:

Lufthansa’s ‘Low Cost Carrier’ Eurowings announced earlier today that it was cancelling service between Cologne and Boston effective August 26, 2016. The 3 weekly flights had been in place only since May 4. No reason was given for the route cancellation but I suspect load factors were a major contributor to the decision.

Eurowings’ other US destination, Miami, remains in place for now with 3 flights per week from Cologne. Eurowings continues to serve several other Caribbean destinations including Cancun and Havana, among others.

Source: http://lufthansaflyer.boardingarea.com/ ... timetable/

[Passenger]

They just don't get it. Everything they decide seems to be based on simulated and statistical traffic flows. Everybody wants to fly to SFO and BOS nowadays because they use the same software simulations.

You just don't get it. Every single airline uses "statistical traffic flow" as primary tool for a new destination because it's the right way and the only way to do it. Airlines collect hundreds of data from IATA, from customs, from visa services, from chambers of commerce, from tourist boards, from trade organisations, from partner airlines, from competition airlines, from surveys, ..., just to get a few basic figures: how many ex-BRU passengers had/have Houston as their end destination? How many ex-Houston passengers have Belgium as end destination? How many Belgians fly out of AMS (on the direct KLM or United flights to Houston)? Next problem, for which basic software is needed indeed: add the seasonal split up.

The only routes that SN are making money consistently is where they drop the software and chase their gut feelings, ie Africa.

Contrary to what you think, Brussels Airlines also uses simulated and statistical traffic flows and software simulations for Africa. The fact that you think that they "chase their gut feelings" once again proofs that you are totally utterly unaware of how the industry works.

[sean1982]

They just don't get it. Everything they decide seems to be based on simulated and statistical traffic flows. Everybody wants to fly to SFO and BOS nowadays because they use the same software simulations.

You just don't get it. Every single airline uses "statistical traffic flow" as primary tool for a new destination because it's the right way and the only way to do it. Airlines collect hundreds of data from IATA, from customs, from visa services, from chambers of commerce, from tourist boards, from trade organisations, from partner airlines, from competition airlines, from surveys, ..., just to get a few basic figures: how many ex-BRU passengers had/have Houston as their end destination? How many ex-Houston passengers have Belgium as end destination? How many Belgians fly out of AMS (on the direct KLM or United flights to Houston)? Next problem, for which basic software is needed indeed: add the seasonal split up.

The only routes that SN are making money consistently is where they drop the software and chase their gut feelings, ie Africa.

Contrary to what you think, Brussels Airlines also uses simulated and statistical traffic flows and software simulations for Africa. The fact that you think that they "chase their gut feelings" once again proofs that you are totally utterly unaware of how the industry works.

Also proves you're not just a passenger and are much more closely associated with SN than what you claimed

[Stij]

Also proves you're not just a passenger and are much more closely associated with SN than what you claimed

Sean, even I (construction sector) could have thought / be convinced that they base their expansion on data instead of gut's feeling...

Cheers,

Stij