Brussels Airlines in 2017

[RoMax]

I flew BRU-BIO and BCN-BRU this Friday and both A319s had a LF of over 90%. Thus I am also wondering which destinations are below average.

Business oriented routes have a much lower average loadfactor than those named above (which indeed have very high loadfactors), but there it is compensated by the much higher average yields.

[lumumba]

Will Brussels Airlines fly to Djerba this summer?
Thx

[HQ_BRU_Lover]

I flew BRU-CPH-BRU end of October en load on the way to CPH was about 95% (morningflight at 9:30 AM). On the way back (eveningflight leaving 9:30PM), load was around 30%...

[brusselsairlinesfan]

I have a lot of good memories with Brussels Airlines,but also the first time my flight appeared in the news paper for strong turbulence...
http://m.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20140428_01084448

And my first flight with Brussels Airlines was from Geneva to Brussels with a Avro...

Wow... these turbulences must have been very impresive!

[brusselsairlinesfan]

2017 being the year of brussels airlines 15th birthday (btw, happy b. day again SN!), I propose all forum members to post here about their own most noticeable memories/experience regarding the belgian carrier since its creation!
As for myself :
- my first flight (operated by DAT) from BRU to HEL on an Avro right after the demise of legendary Sabena. I should have flown to PRG with Sabena but the flight was canceled and DAT could not operate it (no traffic rights). As it was a leisure flight, the guy @ the SN counter just told us to have a look at the depatures board and select a flight of our choice!
- a flight to Florence in 2003 with my girlfriend (for personal reason)
- the inaugural BRU - JFK flight. Fully loaded flight, first time I discovered the new l/h aircraft interior, great atmosphere... even a lttle conversation with Mr. Bernard GUSTIN @ the departure gate (a very nice customer & ops oriented CEO... or certainly the right man at the right place I would say...).

Now what about YOU?!

Maybe I could also mention a flight to FAO in 2012 (the first flight ever with my son at the age of 3) and the "Trident" & "Rackham" rides (respectively to PRG and from AGP to BRU...)!

[sn26567]

The future of Brussels Airlines in the Eurowings group? Bleak! Interesting interview here:

https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2017/02/2 ... onsidered/

"Adding to the complexity is the addition of Brussels Airlines to the group, with both short-haul and long-haul operations to be integrated. Birlenbach believes that Brussel Airlines’ European services can be folded under the Eurowings brand while the very successful sub-Saharan Africa routes will remain a standalone operation."

What about Mumbai and North America? Served from FRA by LH?

[SN501]

I flew BRU-CPH-BRU end of October en load on the way to CPH was about 95% (morningflight at 9:30 AM). On the way back (eveningflight leaving 9:30PM), load was around 30%...

This CPH - BRU flight is almost more a positioning than a commercial flight regarding its poor LF. If many morning flights back to BRU are so empty that can easily explain the average LF beyond 70%.

Should a future Eurowings (or other...) allow more operational flexiblity and optimize the revenue? E.g.: BRU-CPH, no CPH-BRU regarding the poor LF at this schedule, but a CPH-MXP followed by a MXP-BRU. Global network optimisation.

[DeltaWiskey]

What about Mumbai and North America? Served from FRA by LH?

North America will remain, this the largest O&D long haul market out of BRU (except for maybe FIH). The majority of the O&D passengers will not travel via FRA, LH knows this very well. They are smart enough to not hand it over on a plate to a competitor.

The Mumbai launch has the full support of Lufthansa in almost any way. It is a probably also thanks to their support that reservations are above expectations.

Rumours about an 11th A330 joining later this year are more and more persistent.

[Jetter]

What about Mumbai and North America? Served from FRA by LH?

Due to geographical location NA is likely to stay. FRA is not far, but there's too much competition without backtracking to make these destination viable via FRA. BOM will likely depend on the results once launched, I wouldn't count on any additions eastbound though.

[nordikcam]

Rumours about an 11th A330 joining later this year are more and more persistent.

Well, if not eastbound flights...BOM could stay the only one. The 11th one could fly to West ( Boston ) or South ( Lagos Libreville )...??

[brusselsairlinesfan]

The future of Brussels Airlines in the Eurowings group? Bleak! Interesting interview here:

https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2017/02/2 ... onsidered/

"Adding to the complexity is the addition of Brussels Airlines to the group, with both short-haul and long-haul operations to be integrated. Birlenbach believes that Brussel Airlines’ European services can be folded under the Eurowings brand while the very successful sub-Saharan Africa routes will remain a standalone operation."

What about Mumbai and North America? Served from FRA by LH?

This is a crucial interview... Is she talking about decisions that are already taken or not? If yes, it seems indeed clear that our beloved brussels airlines will be dismantled and downsized!
But I fail to understand why they don ´ t manage austrian airlines in the same way they do with brussels airlines, as both companies profiles are about the same... Don ´ t you think?

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Well one can say austrians speaks the same language
Swiss got the cash and profile...
SN has africa thats all

SN longhaul will gradually be brussels airlines by Lufthansa, and the rest Brussels Wings I guess... for AFI connections, all the rest standard Eurowings...
Let's hope Eurowings will burn it wings and crash before the two years are over...
A last hope we can have for the final episode...

CXB

[brusselsairlinesfan]

Hi,

Well one can say austrians speaks the same language
Swiss got the cash and profile...
SN has africa thats all

SN longhaul will gradually be brussels airlines by Lufthansa, and the rest Brussels Wings I guess... for AFI connections, all the rest standard Eurowings...
Let's hope Eurowings will burn it wings and crash before the two years are over...
A last hope we can have for the final episode...

CXB

That would be a very very sad scenario!!!
In that case, will Air Belgium become the new network carrier @ BRU?!

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

As the decision is made we are runnin' out of other future constructions, it will be EW or not... !
Every scenario is bad or worse,... :/
For real SN guys... it is loose-loose I'm afraid.. or we must turn ourselves in EW guys... but that will be too hard for the avionhearts only moneytalking fans can and dare to see the future options as a win...

CXB

[lumumba]

I have a lot of good memories with Brussels Airlines,but also the first time my flight appeared in the news paper for strong turbulence...
http://m.standaard.be/cnt/dmf20140428_01084448

And my first flight with Brussels Airlines was from Geneva to Brussels with a Avro...

Wow... these turbulences must have been very impresive!

It was everything went in the air like there was no gravity anymore...
And the crew reacted very well and fast I also remember that the pilot was very upset because we had wounded passengers and he asked for help .
And there was nothing prepared at the airport of Luanda for them ...

[RoMax]

Let's hope Eurowings will burn it wings and crash before the two years are over...
A last hope we can have for the final episode...

Something like that would be in nobody's interest at all...

SN longhaul will gradually be brussels airlines by Lufthansa, and the rest Brussels Wings I guess... for AFI connections, all the rest standard Eurowings...

LH is hardly known in the vast majority of SN's markets in Africa, messing with the brand overthere is not a good idea anytime in the near future. If it comes to adding a sub-tagline such as for example "Member of the Eurowings Group"...who cares, it helps strengthening the EW name, but it doesn't change what SN is in its essence.
In terms of Europe, well yeah maybe within a few years we see the current SN brand evolving to a mixed-branding (Brussels Airlines with a clear reference to Eurowings) or to Eurowings (or a Brussels variant) complemented by an 'Operated by Brussels Airlines' or something, but if that's what it takes to give SN (as in the company and not necessarily the brand) the means to grow in BRU...why not?! No matter how much I like SN and its brand, it is internationally by far the least known brand in the LH Group (also below Austrian, which is also still significantly bigger and with a much higher degree of hub ops compared to the more O&D oriented SN in terms of intra-Europe ops). Instead of despising EW, we should accept that integration and consolidation is a very powerful tool (look at the US consolidation which created some of the biggest cash machines in the industry - yes maybe not the most interesting for the aviation enthousiast, but in the end it are not those paying the bills (and shareholders...)).

Africa will remain in BRU and will become stronger than it already is (the aim changed from being an African specialist to being the leader in Africa), but also the North American network is here to stay (and India if it continues to perform as planned). It is naive to think LH will just move it to Germany...do you really think the market will follow with it? To give an example: Jet Airways moved to AMS...does that mean there is no market anymore for routes like Toronto, Mumbai, etc in BRU? No. Moving the US/CA ops to Germany will just open the market for others, non-stop or not, LH/EW will succeed in only diverting a minor part of the local BRU market (in terms of O&D about the largest in the whole LH Group) to Germany.

That strong local market is also a major strength of SN in the EW Group...we have the O&D that EW doesn't have in their other markets. At the same time that makes (unfortunately or not) SN attractive to associate with EW directly instead of taking an EW+OS approach as they do in VIE (where OS is much more hub oriented than SN in BRU).

In any case, we are talking about GROWTH here in BRU and as long as SN continues generating the profits that are expected, resources will be available to grow here: both long haul and short haul, with or without the current branding.

[Passenger]

Imagine you are no forum visitor/poster, but you are the representative in Belgium from a competitor airline. You have a fixed and fulltime contract, normal payroll, and you don't want to loose that. Imagine a director from your foreign head office now mails you: "please make a report for the Board, about what will happen to Brussels Airlines in 2018, now that Lufthansa took over controls at nv/sa SN Airholding".

Seriously, would you be able to report firmly to your head office what Lufthansa will do, without too much reserve in your report? So no probably..., perhaps..., maybe..., according to..., I think..., however..., but then...?

No, you can't. And that's maybe Lufthansa's plan with all those contradicting press releases about Brussels Airlines: the competition has no idea what LH will do. And therefore, Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines can move on with their plans, whatever they are, without having to fear immediate action from their competition.

[brusselsairlinesfan]

Regarding the brand, I don't see them spliting it in different names for long haul and short haul operations... way too fuzzy! A nice choice and compromise could be to name it all Belgianwings as it would keep the belgian identity together with the characteristic -wings name/brand. Again, this is pure speculation... so what do you think?

[sean1982]

The future of Brussels Airlines in the Eurowings group? Bleak! Interesting interview here:

https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2017/02/2 ... onsidered/

"Adding to the complexity is the addition of Brussels Airlines to the group, with both short-haul and long-haul operations to be integrated. Birlenbach believes that Brussel Airlines’ European services can be folded under the Eurowings brand while the very successful sub-Saharan Africa routes will remain a standalone operation."

What about Mumbai and North America? Served from FRA by LH?

Told you so would be to easy .... despite all the backlash I got (and get)

[Jetter]

Regarding the brand, I don't see them spliting it in different names for long haul and short haul operations... way too fuzzy! A nice choice and compromise could be to name it all Belgianwings as it would keep the belgian identity together with the characteristic -wings name/brand. Again, this is pure speculation... so what do you think?

I think that LH will look at the brand portfolio of the whole group when deciding and won't care about Belgian identity. 'Wings' isn't a very distinctive part of an airline brand either (GermanWings, Wings Air, SmartWings, AsianWings etc.), and knowing LH just ditched GermanWings it doesn't seem likely they'll create a new national 'Wings' brand.

The most logical solution is EuroWings for the European business and "Brussels Airlines" or "Lufthansa Africa/Belgium" (they've done this before with Lufthansa Italia) for the African business.