Air Belgium February news update

[sab319]

During the past few weeks a lot of things have happened at Air Belgium and we felt it would be best to make a short summary of them.

To begin we are very proud to say that today we broke the barrier of 100 pilots and to celebrate this one of our A319's (OO-POD "Tunisia", ex-populair, delivered 21-08-2004) received a special sheme. In the Spirit of Air Belgium we celebrate the achievemnt of reaching the milestone of 100 pilots at Air Belgium and we would like to thank all our members for their continuous effort to make our va what it is today.





OO-POD photographed during her first flight to Hamburg wearing "the spirit of Air Belgium" markings


Because Air Belgium has developed so much lately and our current offices didn't fit our needs anymore we have moved to a new 150 metres high office tower in the Center of Antwerp. It was designed by the famous Dutch architect Paul Van Montfort and will be a very important highlight in the virtual Antwerp skyline. It's already a very impressive building the day but it's even more appealing at night thanks to the night lighting.





To further improve the services at Air Belgium we also have several job openings at staff services at the moment with probably some more to come soon, for more information please visit Our careers page



Our Irish division is also a succes and we have received a lot of positive feed-back about the services after the launch of the new destinations wednesday. Most ex-Eireflyer planes are now flying in a hybrid sheme but we expect them to be repainted in a new colorsheme soon. Below we included some photos of the inaugural flights to Barcelona and Madrid.


A321 in Barcelona


A319 in Madrid (T1)


And last but not least 2 new planes joined the ABB fleet, our first Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 on February the 15th and our second RR powered A330-200 OO-ADD "Black Sea" on February the 17th.


OO-DHA preparing for her first flight to London City


OO-ADD arriving at 25R in Brussels after her delivery flight from Toulouse

Because time doesn't stand still at Air Belgium we are currently working on some new and original projects on which we will tell you more during our next press release(s), so stay tuned!

[chornedsnorkack]

Because Air Belgium has developed so much lately and our current offices didn't fit our needs anymore we have moved to a new 150 metres high office tower in the Center of Antwerp. It was designed by the famous Dutch architect Paul Van Montfort and will be a very important highlight in the virtual Antwerp skyline. It's already a very impressive building the day but it's even more appealing at night thanks to the night lighting.

How high is the building compared to the rest of central city, and does it enter any takeoff/landing funnels?

[DAT202D]

Sorry to say, but how far can you go.....

Flying almost any aircraft, having the talest building in Belgium, ...

Isn't FS2004 on IVAO supposed to be 'As real as it gets?"

This is sure the opposite


Grtz

[brieky]

sorry ,... DAT202D

Air Belgium VA is COOL

[brieky]

please, post more pics like these!!


its super!!

[DAT202D]

sorry ,... DAT202D

Air Belgium VA is COOL

I didn't mean that Ofcourse ABB is nice but they are clearly going a different way then my vision is.. For me, flightsim is as real as it gets.. that's it.. But flying almost any aircraft is not.

Anyway, good job !

[Zorba]

I agree with 202D.

Your VA just keeps buying planes that it it's realistic anymore. What is it about? Being the largest VA in Belgium?

[brieky]

are there new reports of virtual long haul flights?
it would be nice to see that.
AB is just great! whatever what other peoples say!

greetz Brieky

[sab319]

I agree with 202D.

Your VA just keeps buying planes that it it's realistic anymore. What is it about? Being the largest VA in Belgium?

Well we are actually rationalising our fleet, a whole lot planes are leaving the fleet and uninteresting flights are beeing cut aswell, we just don't say that since it's bad publicity

[Flightboy2004]

Sorry to say, but how far can you go.....
Flying almost any aircraft, having the talest building in Belgium, ...

Hi,

First about the fleet:
Med/Long Haul - Airbus
Regional - Bombardier

I don't know what is not realistic about that?

The talest building in Belgium?
It's nice that a person makes such a building for us, it takes a lot of time to design and build something like that from scratch and I think it's really cool of Paul van Montfort to do this for Air Belgium. 8) It was never an official project of Air Belgium, we just got this as a present and want to show it to you.

[Buzz]

Sadly I can't run FS2004 on my laptop, but I am interested in VA's.
AirBelgium looks like a very well organised VA, with a nice livery and great people behind it, however...
I have said it before and I still agree with the comments here:
What's the point in having almost 100 airbusses (even old a300's) and on top of that 10 MD11's and 10 B747's? Same with ATR & Bombardier...
I understand why (it's fun to fly different airplanes) but it doesn't make it realistic. More than 50 long range aircraft is hardly realistic, and doesn't have any point, except for being the biggest. When I finally have the material to be able to fly, those unrealistic things would make me consider other VA's... Not everyone looks for realism though, there is a market for pilots who just want every plane possible.

I mean all the above as positive criticism, because apart from the fleet setup, your VA rocks!

[fokker_f27]

I'm trying to make mine realistic, but I have got 3 ERJ170 and 2 JS41aircrafts. It looks like I will have to save long. But if you look at real airlines, they order maybe 10 aircrafts in 5 years at the most.

[Sabena320]

Air Belgium is and stays a very nice VA. Keep up the good work!!!

[chornedsnorkack]

Effectively, a real world airline exists to meet the demand of passengers to fly - passengers willing to pay for fuel, catering et cetera.

A virtual airline exists to meet the demand of pilots (willing to spend time).

It makes perfect sense that the VA market is much bigger than the RA market, as obviously the costs of a VA are so much lower!

One wonders... do the Virtual Airlines constitute a demand for any additional aircraft types not affordable for the real airlines. Are there any reputable Virtual Manufacturers?

[fokker_f27]

One wonders... do the Virtual Airlines constitute a demand for any additional aircraft types not affordable for the real airlines. Are there any reputable Virtual Manufacturers?

There are virtual leasing company's. I was thinking of useing one, but I can't find one.

[chornedsnorkack]

On further consideration, it seems that most VA pilots want to fly real planes.

Of course, there can be different Flight Simulators for the same real airplane. What are the best simulator manufacturers Air Belgium uses?

[sab319]

at the moment we only support Microsoft flight simulator, but we are researching to do the same for X-plane.

[Tommypilot]

Hi,

As someone of the 'old' guard concerning flight simulator I only can admit I started because of my first real flight. I didn't start due to the fact I aimed to do it as realistic as possible but just because flying was such a funny and nice thing to do.

IVAO may have the "reputation" of being an organization aiming to be as realistic as it can be, you still have many pilots who fly to have fun and yes who maybe fly ten different types. So what? Does he have fun? Thats what still counts in my eyes. You cannot force something in the virtual world, you cannot and you may not!! Thats my strong opinion and experience.

Off course nowadays I try to do it as realistic as possible with only two 'virtual' type ratings. But who in the name of I don't know who am I to tell what others should do or do not...

At our VA DVAG everyone may fly it like he want to fly: as realistic as it can be or as funny as it can be for him...welcome to the virtual world guys...

Giving comments and critism is ok off course...but they must be relevant!

To some of you...whats wrong with buying much planes? Many airliners in the real world do it (RYR, EK,...) The big advantage is in the virtual world that your airline does not go bankrupt as some already did in the 'real' world (Sabena for example) And 'their' VA still exists...well seeing from the eyes of some of you that should not be considered as realistic too...

Whats wrong with having different types of airplanes? Many real airliners have various types of airplanes (KLM, AF, ...)

I am not defending Air BelgiumVA, because I cannot understand their policy either...but who am I to say what they should do or not...correct... nobody...