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

[lumumba]

Brussels Airport verliest cargovluchten Ethiopian Airlines
door © Belga/brusselnieuws.be
Zaventem12:31 - 27/10/2015
Luchtvaartmaatschappij Ethiopian Airlines verhuist haar cargovluchten van Brussels Airport naar de luchthaven van Maastricht, in Nederland. Volgens Brussels Airport


Zaventem verliest de cargovluchten van Ethiopian aan Maastricht. (© Helena Van Eykeren)
De verhuizing werd eerder al aangekondigd door zakenkrant L'Echo en is door een goede bron bevestigd aan Belga.

"De beslissing is genomen", aldus de bron. "De trafiekrechten die Ethiopian niet krijgt vanuit Brussel, krijgt het wel in Maastricht", wordt het vertrek uitgelegd. De tijdelijke trafiekrechten van de luchtvaartmaatschappij, die ook opereert vanuit Luik, werden in september gehalveerd door minister van Mobiliteit Jacqueline Galant (MR). Dat gebeurde onder meer op vraag van concurrent TNT Airways.

In Maastricht zou de maatschappij vanaf 1 november starten met negen vluchten per week. Ethiopian voert op Brussels Airport momenteel vijf vluchten per week uit voor vrachtbedrijf DHL Global Forwarding (naar Dubai, Hongkong en Shanghai).

Luchthavenbaas Arnaud Feist reageerde ontgoocheld via Twitter. "We betreuren dat een belangrijke cargomaatschappij zoals Ethiopian Airlines Brussels Airport verlaat voor Maastricht. Honderden jobs verloren in België", klonk het. Ethiopian Airlines voert op Brussels Airport vijf vluchten per week uit, goed voor ongeveer 40.000 ton vervoerde vracht op jaarbasis. Dat komt theoretisch (100 ton = 1 job) overeen met 400 banen, zo zei de luchthaven eerder al.
brusselnieuws.be.

[sean1982]

And then they call the flemish extremists

[Atlantis]

Congratulations complainers!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations politics!!!!!!!!!!!

Poor Belgium


Congratulations Netherlands that you welcome a new cargo player!!!!!!

Rediculous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Acid-drop]

sorry guys, this is not an LGG news, put that in the BRU news topic.
LGG knew very well this would happen, and they certainly have no benefit from it.
Make me wonder why the belgian pilot association was pushing so strong to see everything go abroad.
Poor country, indeed.
(and btw, they still mention "hundreds" of jobs, when the real calculation shows ... 7, it's a spin doctor war and the only goal is to point one group against another i'm afraid)

[flightlover]

sorry? 7 jobs??? So the plane come's in without human intervention? Gets automatically refuelled, unloaded, loaded, pushed back and maintained??????
And that are just the things done on ground. Without ever mentioning paperwork, transport of freight and crew.

This 'pilot association' is just short sighted and incapable if they don't count that in.

[Stij]

Posts about Ethiopian Cargo separated to a different topic.

The Mod's personal opinion: this is stupid. Ethiopian wants and will fly from the Benelux to these destinations. This "lobbying" from whoever it may be (TNT, Pilot Associations, LGG, Liège Politicians, Brussels Politicians... ) has resulted in BELGIAN jobs lost that will not be compensated by new BELGIAN jobs.

Pure speculation, no fact... but if (that's IF) Fedex threatened to leave LGG if Ethiopian was granted these rights, think twice before you believe to have saved LGG: if they threaten to leave, some they they will.

In summary: BELGIANS are stupid... once again...

A Belgian Stij

[airazurxtror]

Brussels airport is already attacked by its neighbours because of the noise.
If BRU wants to remain a passenger airport with as many airlines as possible, it should drastically reduce the number of cargo flights, instead of increasing them - all the more if they are night flights.
Many Citizen organizations are already demanding a larger night curfew, it's not the best moment to allow more cargo flights ... is it so difficult to understand ?

[Atco EBBR]

These were day flights...

[jan_olieslagers]

And what's the use of giving in to the nimby's (who couldn't care less about jobs lost, as long as it isn't their own), they will only whine over their next objective.

[Acid-drop]

Beca is also attacking fedex today...

[Bruspotter]

Hello

It's another sad
episode in the long string of the 'epos of the fallen' at Brussels airport.

airazurxtror: Yeah I understand your concern with those flights regarding the action commitées at the Brussels-region. However there is one thing I quite not understand (or maybe you or the action commitées in fact instead of all of us ...). There is absolutely ZERO link between noise and why Brussels airport should be a only pax airport. It has absolutely NO connection. Historically it's something that has 'grown' into the people's mind because we had DHL (previously in the 80's Fedex hub instead) at Brussels , who accidently do mostly night ops, like all forwarders in fact (you know one major forward who does not ???). But that does not mean in essence that Cargo flights are night ops by definition NOR does it mean they bring a lot more inconvenience to people surrounding the airport then pax flights would do.

So I see no valid argument in what you state in reducing the cargo flights .. only then to feed the ignorant unknowing minds of those action commitées' members, thinking cargo is anyway associated with night... Remember that in the past, totally seperated from DHL, Brussels had a very intensive Cargo network with many carriers (of whom 70% of them left BRU anyway by now) ... Saudi Cargo, Singapore Cargo, Cathay Pacific Cargo, Eva Air Cargo , Cargo-B, Asiana Cargo, Korean Air Cargo, ... (should I continue ... the list is much longer) which have been operating a high number of freight flights in the early and mid 2000's whith NONE of these flights being a nightflight .. and none of these flights operated with older types then the standard at that time for pax flights so no other noise class. So even for people who do not know about aviation (like the members of these action commitées) it is a very idiotic thing to make such a statement totally unsound ... something I just can't get ...

Grts, Yannick

[Bracebrace]

All three 777's of TNT are today doing exactly what Ethiopian wants to do: connecting Belgium with Dubai and Hong Kong. On top, a 747 is used to connect LGG with Shanghai. That's 4 widebody aircraft in total, registered in Belgium, flown by Belgian pilots. Belgian pilots, that means: flemish + walloon. And all that happens already daily from a Belgian airport. You might be surprised, but hey, at LGG work... flemish and walloon people.

You want extra ground jobs in Brussels and sacrifice 4 Belgium registered and flown long haul aircraft flying daily? Thank you Belgium. I take note of your logic.

[Bruspotter]

Hi

@Bracebrace: well it's maybe a bit off 'topic' and politically incorrect to say that (not to say it makes it look I don't even love my country, which to a certain extend has for sure some truth in that statement) but Belgium and Aviation in one sentence it's like swearing ... It just doesn't connects together.
Those of you working in aviation in Belgium and ever had to obtain anything from the BCAA or the Belgian government concerning aviation will know ... it just doesn't work like it could be (and it's said with the most respect for those people over there, but is it lack of resources maybe?) ... for some reason ...
Not to mention why politics and aviation would not be a succesfull marriage ...

Grts

[Stij]

You want extra ground jobs in Brussels and sacrifice 4 Belgium registered and flown long haul aircraft flying daily? Thank you Belgium. I take note of your logic.

Off course not!!! But with Ethiopian moving to Maastricht, did the situation of those 4 planes, direct and indirect employment improve a mm? I beg to disagree...

Cheers,

Stij

[lumumba]

All three 777's of TNT are today doing exactly what Ethiopian wants to do: connecting Belgium with Dubai and Hong Kong. On top, a 747 is used to connect LGG with Shanghai. That's 4 widebody aircraft in total, registered in Belgium, flown by Belgian pilots. Belgian pilots, that means: flemish + walloon. And all that happens already daily from a Belgian airport. You might be surprised, but hey, at LGG work... flemish and walloon people.

You want extra ground jobs in Brussels and sacrifice 4 Belgium registered and flown long haul aircraft flying daily? Thank you Belgium. I take note of your logic.

That's not correct because now they are in Maastricht even closer to Liege so I don't understand the logic here...
The competition is the same or worse and Brussels loose 400 Jobs...

[Bracebrace]

Bruspotter, I know that, but I was referring to the "belgian" opinions here on the forum.

Pilots in TNT come from all over Belgium. That includes the flemish region with pilots coming from Antwerp up to people living close to the coastline. There are not a lot of options for pilots in Belgium. Brussels is one of them, but Liège is one as well, Charleroi is one. That's pretty much it or you have to leave the country. If you talk intercontinental flying, the airport itself doesn't really matter. That's why the flemish are flying out of Liège and manage to have a good family life.

If people here consider it "Belgian" to let Ethiopian do similar flights from Brussels and sacrifice Liège based jobs, be my guest. But you pay taxes, and those taxes will pay unemployment of another group of Belgian pilots who've been driving hours to Liège for years, paying taxes in Belgium, only to be able to stay in Belgium with their family and not having to "take it all out of the country" (something that no Belgian pilot wants to do you know)

It is also a bit disgracefull for walloon pilots, since they face the same problem if you live in the most southern part of the country...

[Bracebrace]

One question: if Ethiopian can do it, why can't the about to be sold TNT Airways do it? I'm happy to read you'd rather give those jobs to Ethiopian pilots, and have Belgian pilots go apply for a job with them if they ever would happen to lose their jobs because of the Fedex takeover.

If a company wants to transport freight through Brussels, fine, but get the freight on a Belgian registered aircraft.

[lumumba]

Bruspotter, I know that, but I was referring to the "belgian" opinions here on the forum.

Pilots in TNT come from all over Belgium. That includes the flemish region with pilots coming from Antwerp up to people living close to the coastline. There are not a lot of options for pilots in Belgium. Brussels is one of them, but Liège is one as well, Charleroi is one. That's pretty much it or you have to leave the country. If you talk intercontinental flying, the airport itself doesn't really matter. That's why the flemish are flying out of Liège and manage to have a good family life.

If people here consider it "Belgian" to let Ethiopian do similar flights from Brussels and sacrifice Liège based jobs, be my guest. But you pay taxes, and those taxes will pay unemployment of another group of Belgian pilots who've been driving hours to Liège for years, paying taxes in Belgium, only to be able to stay in Belgium with their family and not having to "take it all out of the country" (something that no Belgian pilot wants to do you know)

It is also a bit disgracefull for walloon pilots, since they face the same problem if you live in the most southern part of the country...

I repeat :
That's not correct because now they are in Maastricht even closer to Liege so I don't understand the logic here...
The competition is the same or worse and Brussels loose 400 Jobs...

[Acid-drop]

Do you have any proof there are any belgian pilot flying ethiopian metal ?
On the ground, 7 full time equivalent for 5 flights is probably realistic. Hundreds ? Please....
A pushback of 6 min doesnt create a job.

[JustPlanes]

We've just released a film on the TNT 777 and FYI 2 of the 3 Captains were not from Belgium...

If anything, losing ET to Holland is a loss for Belgium and does nothing to help TNT... which will probably end up being FedEx anyway... (just my 2 cents