b.air: Brussels Airlines : ambitions in the Great Lakes.

[blackhawk]

Dat staat zo vandaag te lezen in De Standaard, p20 van economie (E20). Ook op die pagina in het groot: de groeimarkt van b.air is Afrika.

Philippe Vander Putten, new boss of Brussels Airlines, speaks about his strategy to make his company profitable - report in "Le Soir" this morning.

Five priorities :
- the African network.
Brussels Airlines is the only occidental airline to risk flying into Burundi and in Rwanda. The concurrents dare not come there. All the better. The smaller the concurrence, the higher the prices can be set. "One can ask thrice the price of a BRU-NYC !" And moreover, a kilo of freight is still more profitable than a kilo of flesh.
The African network : 7% of the pax, but 22% of turn over (chiffre d'affaires), the profitability of Brussels Airlines depend on the african network.
The european network is losing money. Because the European flights are set to bring passengers to the african flights, the crews spend thus the night abroad, which is very costly.
African expansion thus, by increasing the frequencies and opening new lines. And also setting hubs over there. Three priorities : West Africa, Central Africa, Great Lakes. This one is the more advanced project : Brussels Airlines wants to take a participation in Rwandair express; Burundi Air might also be for sale.

- the customer satisfaction.
Brussels Airlines, according to his boss, is already known to have good punctuality and service on board. Now, the public must realise that very low priced seats are on sale, particularly on the lines where there are LCC : SkyEurope and easyJet.
An agreement has been set up with Delhaize, providing possible exchanges in both directions between Delhaize "Point-plus" and Brussels Airlines "Privilege Miles".

- success of b.flex/b.light
It's still too early to say if that concept is successful, and it's not yet fully understood out of Belgium. At the moment, there a three times more b.flex passengers than business passengers in the past.

- lessening the costs.
Better productivity : turn around in 30 minutes instead of 40.
Synergy brought by the merger VEx - SNBA.
Pressure on Brussels Airport to lower its prices (Brussels is one of the more expensive airports in Europe).
Pressure on the Government to lower the social security taxes and deductions.

- One company
The merger between VEX and SNBA is going on, but is more difficult on the social side. An agreement is well on the way with the cabin crews, but not yet with the pilots.

[AF332]

In De TIJD wordt ook een halve pagina besteed aan de groeiplannen van Brussels Airlines in de regio van Oost-Afrika. Etienne Davignon heeft dat gisteren aangekondigd in Burundi. Er wordt gewerkt aan een alliantie met de staatsmaatschappij Rwandair dat over enkele weken al rond zou kunnen zijn (er is ook nog een tweede private partij in het geding). Als gevolg hiervan zouden enkele Avrojets overgevlogen worden naar Rwanda of Burundi. Ik ben benieuwd...

Philippe

[sn26567]

Il y a également une interview de Ph Vander Putten dans La Libre Belgique ajourd'hui: http://www.lalibre.be/article.phtml?id= ... _id=344859

5 priorités:

Satisfaction du client
Vols long courrier vers l'Afrique
Nouveau produit (b.flex/b.light)
Réduction des coûts
Une seule compagnie (AOC) et renouvellement de la flotte

[spotter1102]

Oui ca devient urgent de remplacer les British Aerospace vieillissants par de nouveaux Embraer. En 2004, un Embraer ERJ-170 était déjà venu à BRU en présentation pour SN Brussels Airlines.

[blackhawk]

brussels-airlines-ambitions-in-the-grea ... 21310.html

b-air-after-camair-now-looking-into-oth ... 21316.html

[BrightCedars]

The renewal of the fleet will:

- Be done by 2011 (it's hi time to order!)
- Start in 2011 (order time coming real soon!)
- Initiate with an order in 2011 (Avro's until 2014-5...)

[brusselsairlinesfan]

The renewal of the fleet will:

- Be done by 2011 (it's hi time to order!)
- Start in 2011 (order time coming real soon!)
- Initiate with an order in 2011 (Avro's until 2014-5...)

See topic below :

brussels-airlines-fleet-t20934.html

[airazurxtror]

The renewal of the fleet will:

- Be done by 2011 (it's hi time to order!)
- Start in 2011 (order time coming real soon!)
- Initiate with an order in 2011 (Avro's until 2014-5...)

Il est effrayant de se dire que Brussels Airlines veut encore, pendant sept ou huit ans (s'ils survivent jusque là), continuer à offrir à leurs malheureux passagers des Avro dont le niveau de confort date du siècle passé : depuis lors, on a quand même fait pas mal de progrès dans le conditionnement et la filtration de l'air dans les cabines !
De même pour la pollution, qui est un sujet de plus en plus sensible et pour lequel l'aviation est de plus en plus dans le collimateur : Brussels Airlines a des avions dont les moteurs consomment et polluent comme il y a vingt ans (et il y en a quatre au lieu de deux, par-dessus le marché): là aussi, on a fait des progrès depuis !

[b-west]

*mod mode on*

Why is half of this thread in French or Dutch? It's posted in the latest aviation news, so it should be in English. I would urge all posters to continue in English!

[blackhawk]

*mod mode on*

Why is half of this thread in French or Dutch? It's posted in the latest aviation news, so it should be in English. I would urge all posters to continue in English!

easy: it started his live as a dutch post, but soon 2 English posts were openend. I closed the English posts (they had no replies yet), copied some of the texts into here and moved the entire topic to the "latest aviation news". But indeed to all: from now on in English please.

PS: you've forgotten to put off you mod mode

[beaucaire]

I have serious doubts that SN Brussels will still be alive in three to five years from now - so speculating about replacement orders for the vintage Avros by 2011 is like having discussions about the pope's sex-life...

[brusselsairlinesfan]

I have serious doubts that SN Brussels will still be alive in three to five years from now - so speculating about replacement orders for the vintage Avros by 2011 is like having discussions about the pope's sex-life...

Not fair... as brussels airlines isn't a money loser so far...

[beaucaire]

The matter is not if they earn or lose mony- it's about critical size,strategy,fleets and alliances..
SN migh be earning money ,but they don't have an attractive offer as network-carrier at this stage to feed enough transit-passengers into a long-haul network that they have to build up.
They either boost their fleet soonest with more larger Long Haul metal and start considering replacing Avros with A319's ,Embraers 170/190's or 737 NG's... -or they'l bee swallowed by an Indian or Chinese carrier with a need to feed their Long Hauls into Asia.
For European Carriers SN is not really attractive.

[Flybe]

Or they'l bee swallowed by an Indian or Chinese carrier with a need to feed their Long Hauls into Asia.

Didn't I hear somebody whisper "Jet Airways" now, did I? 8) Could be interesting!

Pieter

[Avro]

Or they'l bee swallowed by an Indian or Chinese carrier with a need to feed their Long Hauls into Asia.

Didn't I hear somebody whisper "Jet Airways" now, did I? 8) Could be interesting!

Pieter

shuuut Pieter don't speak too loud

[Darjeeling]

"Great ambitions" ?? Well if I look at this week end's operations charts for SN we are far away of great ambitions !! Today's KGL will be via BJM and NBO. The DKR in 319 with a stop who knows where ?
SN's pax numbers have dropped in some Africa destinations. Those were the competion is showing teeth !! EBB for example with KLM's arrival.
No Mr VDP the solution is not to send old torn-out airplanes like the BAe 146 to establish a "hub" in a unstable country. SN has to acquire a few more (reliable) long-haul planes to fly more DIRECT flights !! SN is already known as "CAMEL TROPHY" company with all those stops... ----

[Zenfookpower]

Which Great Lakes are you all talking about.. I know only of one "Great Lakes"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_lakes

[killerwhale65]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lake ... guation%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Great_Lakes

[beaucaire]

I repeat my previous assessment that if SN does not change directions and philosophy dramatically within the next months, the company will be history in less than two years.
Truth is that the market-focus on Africa only works with attractive direct flight on aircraft that offer competitive comfort levels as compared to AF/KLM, Swiss, TAP or LH.
BRU is an attractive airport with a great local traffic base ,SN has still some customer-credit based on previous long-haul operations and slot-restrictions in neighbouring hubs are limiting expansions from airports like LHR,AMS or DUS.
Management seems to have fallen into advanced hibernation ,awaiting better times that will never come if they don’t create them.
Double-stop African flights are not what the high-yield customer wants !!!
BUT – clients learn quickly and accept to change airport if the local airline falls back in lethargy –which is currently the case.
TGV to CDG is one hour – so either SN move their ass now or they are gone !

[Cartman]

"Great ambitions" ?? Well if I look at this week end's operations charts for SN we are far away of great ambitions !! Today's KGL will be via BJM and NBO. The DKR in 319 with a stop who knows where ?

I thought one of the 330's was grounded with technical problems, so this is probably a temporary (one day or so?) situation.