Speculation on Brussels Airlines' next TATL destination

[flyfred007]

Which destination will be the next one?
Boston , toronto , chicago, washington , montreal ....

[RoMax]

How I see the chances
95% sure that it will be Boston
5% sure that it will be Montreal

For the 3rd (now I'm looking much further, but if JFK proves succesfull there is no reason to stop after two if there's demand for more)

85% sure that it'll be Montreal
5% for Chicago
5% for San Francisco
5% Boston (if it isn't launched as second TATL destination)

(SFO and ORD because SN mentionned it publicly as possible future destinations.)

[Bralo20]

San Francisco will probably the next destination.

[RoMax]

San Francisco will probably the next destination.

3rd or 4th yes, but the next one? Or did you have some chat with the cabin crew on your BRU-JFK-BRU flights and did they say something?

[Bralo20]

I did have a chat with the cabin crew but not about the TATL expansion. Actually we chatted about the JFK route, SN's AFI ops, Hewa Bora/FlyCongo and Korongo.

I assume it will be SFO though BOS can be an option too. I don't think they'll start ORD, IAD, YUL or EWR in the near (or maybe even the far) future. SN is included in Atlantic++ which means that all revenue/costs are shared on the TATL routes. ORD, IAD, YUL and EWR are operated by SN's A++ partners and thus there is no need to start them themself. I'd rather see UA start a second ORD/EWR/IAD flight before SN flying those destinations themself. Idem dito with YUL and AC.

SFO seems to be the most viable option at the moment. Eventually I can see IAH happen in co-operation with UA.

[WC_EEND]

I was always told that BOS used to be one of the few TATL routes that Sabena made money on, so I could see BOS happening as well.
As for SFO, does anyone know wether the A330s SN currently has (ie: the older birds) have the legs to do SFO?

[RoMax]

Both SFO and BOS seem good candidates, tough I think BOS will be first.

About YUL, I think this discussion has occured some times before on this forum. Yes AC operates this route and they are succesfull on it. But their succes is largely thanks to the great amount of connections to Europe (mainly France I think) and Africa. Each flight between YUL and BRU is loaded with pax to continue their journey on SN. And then you get the same story as with NYC. SN wants to carry their pax from the start to the end when there is such a large amount of pax to/from a certain destination.
If I remember well it has been stated several times by certain people that SN clearly claimed to AC that they want to operate to YUL and that they will do it, not matter what, the only questions remaining are: when? and what with AC? For AC I heard some alternatives like Vancouver or just Toronto. But that's already quite some time ago since I heard something about that.

[Bralo20]

The A330-300's don't have the legs to fly BRU-SFO fully loaded. Newly build birds have a maximum range of 5.850nm while BRU-SFO is 5.540nm. SN's A333's are early birds and will have an usefull range somewhere in the range of 4.500nm which isn't even close to SFO.

SN's A332's however should be able to do it.

[RoMax]

Wow is it such a big difference between the older and the newer A333's? I knew there was a big difference, but 5.850nm <=> 4.500 nm is more than I tought.

[cnc]

SFO would be a bad idea if you look at SN's current situation and fleet.
i doubt BOS can generate enough pax for an A330.
if their aim is still to bring american pax to africa then they should look at DTW

[RoMax]

i doubt BOS can generate enough pax for an A330.

People active in the Belgian pharmaceutical and bio-chemical industry (and mainly research) would be very happy with a non-stop flight to BOS... You often see Belgian people active in these industries in the business class of flights between LHR/FRA/... and BOS. And I'm sure there are quite some other people wanting to fly between BOS en BRU and let's not forget transfer pax.
Enough to fill a daily A333?: probably not, enough to fill a daily A332?: maybe, enough to fill 4-6 weekly A332?: I think so, but not sure of course.

[Megaman]

Is a BRU-SFO rotation possible in 24 hours? Daily frequencies are preferable no?

As for potential destinations, what about LAX and Houston? Both are also hubs of United no? And Miami also comes to mind but more for the tourisme and local communities

[cnc]

Is a BRU-SFO rotation possible in 24 hours? Daily frequencies are preferable no?

As for potential destinations, what about LAX and Houston? Both are also hubs of United no? And Miami also comes to mind but more for the tourisme and local communities

no its not possible in 24hours
IAH would have a terrible loadfactor
LAX has the same problem as SFO
oh and yes daily frequencies are preferable to gain US pax

[Stij]

BOS

Boston was indeed one of the better Long hauls for SN, but that was because nobody else flew to BOS, now everybody does.

SFO

SFO would be a nice connection to the West Coast, but, if your destination is LAX or SAN you have to change anyway and a change at ORD does the trick as well... so the question remains: "Is theere enough O&D traffic to open this route."

The fleet should be able to handle it without a problem...

You could "connect" it to an West-Arika flight using the 2 A332...
Inbound from AFI at 7:00 Outbound to SFO at 9:30
Inbound from SFO at 9:30 Outbound to AFI at 12:00

It has been done in SN times: A342 for NRT and JFK (evening rotation) and B7473 for JNB and ORD...

Montreal:
There's O&D traffic and isn't Toronto the real hub for AC? It could make sense for SN to open Montreal and have AC operate the Toronto route.

RSW:
Probably there's no traffic at all... except for me every once in a while

Cheers,

Stij

[Charlie Roy]

Toronto would be a strong possiblity if Jet Airways were to withdraw from the route.

[SN_forever]

Boston wil be the next destination, i just had a chat with the SN staff
They will try to have 2 A330 more in october..
Montreal will follow ofter Boston

Sn have big plans !!!

[airbuske]

Boston wil be the next destination, i just had a chat with the SN staff
They will try to have 2 A330 more in october..
Montreal will follow ofter Boston

Sn have big plans !!!

I heared something else...
No other A330 this year.

[DannyVDB]

Hi all,

If they would get two more A330 (or whatever) I would rather go for Boston on the one hand and add frequencies and a few other destinations in AFI on the other hand.

Boston because it is an important destination on its own for BRU (industry, also research per se - very important); was indeed one of the better destinations in SN time. More are flying to Boston, true, but the demand increased also over those 12 years ...

The other AFI destinations could be a new pair to be flown in triangle (Bangui, N'Djamena, Niamey, ...), with some more frequencies for some of the existing routes.

Montreal: would work if LH gives up Montreal from MUC which is not the most logic route from a group perspective ... (geographically, economically nor culturally/linguistic).

Just my two cents ...

Cheers,
Danny

[cnc]

Boston wil be the next destination, i just had a chat with the SN staff
They will try to have 2 A330 more in october..
Montreal will follow ofter Boston

what kind of staff because this is new to me too

[Air Key West]

Personally, I think b.air's next TATL flight should be an evening flight to NYC because business travelers would like to have a second flight to NYC, but in the evening, and the return flight should be able to offer better (shorter) connections with the Africa flights leaving BRU after 1400 hours.
Slots permitting, I would say the ideal flight times would be
BRU NYC 1930 - 2145
NYC BRU 2330 - 1245
Other destinations in North America, imo, could wait since ORD, IAD and YUL are already operated by partner airlines and I'm not convinced BOS is such a great idea, since it is not a UA hub and I doubt there would enough pax on the flight without (also) good connections from BOS onward to other US destinations.
In short, the next two A330s b.air would get should be used for an evening flight to NYC and to reinforce the African network. That's for the (hopefully) short term.