SNBA re-opens the route between Brussels and Eindhoven

[Avro]

After two years of absence, SNBA will re-open on the 25th of August a new trice daily connection between Eindhoven and Brussels with a bus. The route will be done in cooperation with BIAC.

I've put the dutch text in the dutch section of this forum, you can see it here

source: http://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl

Ciao
Chris
8)

[sn26567]

Another stupid decision. Sabena has operated the route by helicopter in the late 50ties and early 60ties, by plane later, and finally by bus. They lost their shirt on it.

And SN BA apparently hasn't learned the lesson.

[BBKing]

Living in Turnhout and travelling a lot on the belgian highways, including the E34 (Antwerp-Eindhoven), I regularly saw the Sabena bus shuttle.

As far as I can remember, I never noticed any person on board, except off course the driver ...

I agree that this business decision seems not to be a great one, but hey ... who am I?

[Avro]

Then why do they say in their press release that there is a demand for that route

Was Sabena also working in cooperation with BIAC on that route or not, because this time SNBA is doing it with BIAC

I don't understand, who takes such decision at SNBA Why don't they know it's not profitable


Ciao
Chris
8)

[744rules]

Another great ( :devil2: ) decision by SN(BA) management to motivate foreign carries NOT to fly thru Bru as there are alternatives. Notice I've put some brackets as it looks more and more to the same product in a different wrapping

8)

[sn26567]

As far as I can remember, I never noticed any person on board, except off course the driver ...

I used to be blocked in the bottlenecks of the Brussels ring together with another SN bus shuttle failure: the bus to/from Valenciennes. There also I rarely saw one or two passengers in a 50-seat bus!

History repeats itself...

[sn26567]

Then why do they say in their press release that there is a demand for that route ?

Because a press release must make things look nice to justify a decision in front of the shareholders. There IS demand for flights in Brussels from passengers in the Eindhoven area. But they go faster taking their own cars: see the number of yellow plates in the parkings of BRU!

[BBKing]

Yesterday I was returning from Brussels on the E19 highway when I met the SNBA shuttle to Antwerp and I couldn't believe my eyes !!!!

The shuttle had about 15-20 persons on board !!!! It must have been one of the biggest successes of the shuttle ....

[Comet]

I always thought it was stupid for an airline to operate a bus service (and give it a flight number) between two cities. I remember seeing the Antwerp-Brussels Airport bus in Antwerp (when it was operated by Sabena) and it was empty.

[luchtzak]

Air France is using bus-shuttles from Paris City centre to the airport of CDG.

Do other airlines do it ?

ciao,

Bart
:rock:

[sn26567]

Air France is using bus-shuttles from Paris City centre to the airport of CDG.

I've already used these AF buses. They have a high load factor, contrarily to all SN buses that I have seen until now.

[Passenger]

...Sabena has operated the route by helicopter in the late 50ties and early 60ties, by plane later, and finally by bus. They lost their shirt on it....

This is a topic from 2003 indeed. And with an update from 2018: Dutch newspaper ED/ Eindhovens Dagblad has published a few photos from these Sabena helicopter operations Brussels-Eindhoven-Brussels:

https://www.ed.nl/eindhoven/een-zonnige ... ~a5244d56/
and
http://www.fotowerkplaats-rhce.nl/fotos ... transmundo

[sn26567]

Nice memories indeed. But there were no stewardesses on board the Sikorsky helicopters. They had two separate compartments of each 6 seats facing each other 3-3.

I fondly remember flying Liege (Palais des congrès) - Brussels Airport - Brussels City (Allée Verte) and return in the late 1950es.