Ethiopian moves cargo flights from Brussels to Maastricht. And back!

[Passenger]

This isn't politics, we have no proof it is.

Indeed: we cannot proof, with 100% certainty, thoughts and purposes and hidden agendas. But this is a forum, not a court room, so we don't need that 100% certainty. There are clear facts and findings that suggest with a very high grade of certainty that Mrs Galant intervened on such way that Ethiopian decided to leave BRU:

- Ethiopian only received a monthly permit from Galant, which is against normal cargo practices;

- Maastricht already gave them a six months permit;

- on 27th October, Ethiopian hadn't received it's November permit yet. The reason for this late issue: it wasn't signed yet by... minister Galan (source: Luchtvaartnieuws.nl).

[Didymus]

In countries where politicians still know what ministerial responsibility means, such as The Netherlands, the minister would (be forced to) resign.

[Boavida]

Then I suggest these Francophone politicians take a stroll at the BRU ramp and listen carefully what the most spoken language amongst ground staff is...

Ignorant bastards.

Indeed. I know lots of people working at BRU complaining about the 'unilingualism' of the Francophone ground staff... They just speak French, while the other staff has to be bilingual/trilingual. Oh well, this is Belgium and it will always be this way. The perfect example is the federal(!) minister(!) itself. Galant speaks only French...

[Stij]

Warning!

I'll leave the posts, but please no politics, no Flemish / French speaking b*llsh*t please.

Please stay on topic.

Cheers,

Stij

[sean1982]

Im sorry to say Stij, but when talking about aviation in Belgium its always about politics (in fact nearly everything in Belgium is the flemish vs the walloon) and this topic is no different. Its bullshit indeed, but unfortunatly also true

[tangolima]

Hello

First 2 ETH 77F arrived this morning at MST

Greetings,

[VEX802]

QR isnt gone

Indeed QR isn't gone, but they will move from Aviapartner to Swissport.

SV did that also. Look at what remains of them.
Not saying it will affect the number of flights, but it's hard to miss the causal relation.

Will this swap include both cargo and pax ground handling?
Thank you for the information.

[flightlover]

No, QR pax handling stays at AP. Only cargo is done by SP.

[VEX802]

No, QR pax handling stays at AP. Only cargo is done by SP.

Thank you for the clarification
Does it only impacts the cargo operations @ LGG or also the ones @ BRU?

[flightlover]

It's a cargo network deal, so yes, LGG is included in that.

[LJ]

In countries where politicians still know what ministerial responsibility means, such as The Netherlands, the minister would (be forced to) resign.

You clearly don''t live in The Netherlands as it's clearly not the case. Moreover, if ET would move from MST to BRU, no politician (abeilt the local policticans) would care (AMS/RTM/EIN would be a different story).

[Acid-drop]

We had many back and forth in the past. Everything can happen again. Our current minister isnt the most capable person for the job I'm afraid.
And I still find it hard to know where the pression/lobby is from.

[Didymus]

You clearly don''t live in The Netherlands as it's clearly not the case. Moreover, if ET would move from MST to BRU, no politician (abeilt the local policticans) would care (AMS/RTM/EIN would be a different story).

I wasn't talking about aviation specifically of course, but about scandals under the political responsibility of a minister in general. Last week Wilma Mansveld resigned because of the Fyra fiasco. It has been ages since a Belgian politician took that kind of responsibility.

Minister Galant knew perfectly well what the consequences of her actions would be, and yet she was disloyal to the Belgian interest.

[jan_olieslagers]

Our current minister isnt the most capable person for the job I'm afraid.

I quite agree (from the other side of the linguistical "frontier" !) but that too is, alas, nothing new. Can you remember an able and active person heading that department? Political success does not come from ability, neither from proven successes. More's the pity.

And yes I do agree we shouldn't argue politics, but politics are at the root of this issue indeed. How can we avoid mentioning them?

[LJ]

You clearly don''t live in The Netherlands as it's clearly not the case. Moreover, if ET would move from MST to BRU, no politician (abeilt the local policticans) would care (AMS/RTM/EIN would be a different story).

I wasn't talking about aviation specifically of course, but about scandals under the political responsibility of a minister in general. Last week Wilma Mansveld resigned because of the Fyra fiasco. It has been ages since a Belgian politician took that kind of responsibility.

Minister Galant knew perfectly well what the consequences of her actions would be, and yet she was disloyal to the Belgian interest.

You do know that Wilma Mansveld left because it was the Xth screw up of her department (and she would have left anyway as her department was involved in another issue)? In The Netherlands you don't get fired because an airline leaves for another country. In fact they would probably love to see an airline (KLM excluded) leave as it may benefit KLM. Thus I doubt anyone in The Hague would shed a tear should ET decide to go somewhere else one day.

As for the Belgian minister and her department, I doubt that they care much about ET as there's not much involved for them.

[Acid-drop]

On this article, they mention again the most likely theory : the bride (TNT) must look sexy.
http://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/ ... maastricht

[sn26567]

War on Twitter:

Arnaud Feist, CEO Brussels Airport: "After discontinuing its #brusselsairport cargo operations,@flyethiopian starts moving flights from #Liège to Maastricht. #Belgium loses jobs"

Liege Airport: "@arnaudfeist @flyethiopian not enough work with your airport?"

[flightlover]

Yep, that is how short sighted LGG management is.

However, what else to expect. One can not expect a minister, or it's affiliates, to tell the public they shot in their own foot. How embarrassing that would be.

[Acid-drop]

Let's mention the news that triggered these twitter msgs

Dutch: http://www.tijd.be/ondernemen/luchtvaar ... 5-3085.art
French: https://www.rtbf.be/info/economie/detai ... id=9149659
English summary : LGG will loose 3 of the 12 (14?) weekly flights. MST is the big winner.

As if the story wasnt sad enough for our country, they now need to add more on twitter... Clever kids.
Feist has a successfull airport to run, he shouldnt lose time with politics.

But i'm convinced nothing would have happened without the big wedding of TNT.

Lets hope they did this for a good reason.

[Acid-drop]

http://www.cargoforwarder.eu/2016/02/07 ... go-market/