Lufthansa CEO: "SN could become part of Eurowings"

[Didymus]

Lufthansa overweegt om zijn dochtermaatschappij Brussels Airlines onder te brengen in Eurowings, de nieuwe lowcostmaatschappij van de Duitse luchtvaartgroep. Dat heeft topman Carsten Spohr maandagmiddag duidelijk gemaakt in Frankfurt.

Lufthansa is voor 45 procent eigenaar van Brussels Airlines en kan dit tot 100 procent optrekken. De Belgische maatschappij zou zo Eurowings of Brusselwings kunnen worden, zei Spohr.

Bij Brussels Airlines zegt een woordvoerder niet op de hoogte te zijn van die plannen. Naast Brussels Airlines wordt volgens Spohr overigens ook het Italiaanse Air Dolomiti mogelijk Eurowings.

short translation:
Lufthansa is considering adding SN to the Eurowings brand. This is what Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr told the press this morning in Frankfurt. Lufthansa owns 45% of SN, but could raise this to 100% which would turn SN into Eurowings or Brusselwings (sic.)

The SN spokesperson is not aware of these plans. Not only SN is at risk, but also the Italian subsidiary Air Dolomiti.

[Flanker2]

What a surprise...

[crew1990]

And what would be the point to change of name, to loose our credibility to our client? To loose our name in Africa and mainly in the Ebola countries. The article come from HLN the only rational reason I have is that they were short of idea and they simply wrote some bullshit to feel the gap.

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

EXIT SN !
A smooth killing of a brand, a new version of swissair IMHO...

Jetairfly will become TUI ... so no belgian regs left on belgian soil.. except for newby VLM !!!

OMG... there goes all the efforts of creating a belgium strong brand, see RACKHAM,RED DEVILS...

Will miss it for sure...
But please bring some money this time and new planes for our own 'LH Ryanair version...'...

CXB

[crew1990]

Hooo and by the way Brusselwing? A dutch name? Wouldn't it be better Brusselswing?

[Boavida]

This would be OUTRAGEOUS!

Brussels Airlines is the flag carrier airline of Belgium, they can't just throw it away. The only acceptable name change would be to rename the company back to... Sabena. Still a stronger brand than Brussels Airlines, even after 15 years!

[Didymus]

Hooo and by the way Brusselwing? A dutch name? Wouldn't it be better Brusselswing?

Hence my (sic.). The Germans call Brussels Brüssel of course, which could explain the missing s as well.

[airazurxtror]

As said above, is it really a total surprise for someone ?
It's obvious that the German call the shots at SN, and in the best interest of Lufthansa, one has seen it recently with the Nairobi decison.

[sean1982]

Lufthansa overweegt om zijn dochtermaatschappij Brussels Airlines onder te brengen in Eurowings, de nieuwe lowcostmaatschappij van de Duitse luchtvaartgroep. Dat heeft topman Carsten Spohr maandagmiddag duidelijk gemaakt in Frankfurt.

Lufthansa is voor 45 procent eigenaar van Brussels Airlines en kan dit tot 100 procent optrekken. De Belgische maatschappij zou zo Eurowings of Brusselwings kunnen worden, zei Spohr.

Bij Brussels Airlines zegt een woordvoerder niet op de hoogte te zijn van die plannen. Naast Brussels Airlines wordt volgens Spohr overigens ook het Italiaanse Air Dolomiti mogelijk Eurowings.

short translation:
Lufthansa is considering adding SN to the Eurowings brand. This is what Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr told the press this morning in Frankfurt. Lufthansa owns 45% of SN, but could raise this to 100% which would turn SN into Eurowings or Brusselwings (sic.)

The SN spokesperson is not aware of these plans. Not only SN is at risk, but also the Italian subsidiary Air Dolomiti.

Those german F/O's didnt come for nothing to our REAL belgian airline
This was long coming, but a lot of you turned a blind eye to it. On the other hand, it will secure your jobs (but you will have to do the same work for less money probably)

[b-west]

Brusselswings... Sounds like a cool party but not really like an airline name. It would be silly to rebrand the whole airline, but maybe they want to split up the company into two parts ? Already now the short haul SN offers a very different product than the long haul SN. Maybe SN will remain as a full service long haul carrier and short haul operations become eurowings? Not that I would find it a very good plan, but who knows what the Germans have in mind.

[sn26567]

Wouldn't it be better Brusselswing?

Sounds too much like Brussels swings!

No, seriously, hold your horses. Nothing has been decided, LH owns only 45% of SN (a minority share, since SN Airholding still owns 55%). And if we take the Austrian example, Austrian Airlines will continue to exist despite the fact that they will operate some Eurowings flight out of Vienna.

Hence, the only likely Eurowings operations in Brussels will be come "cheap" flights operated by SN (or another carrier) on behalf of Eurowings.

Edit: b-west came up with similar ideas seconds before me

[airazurxtror]

In French :
http://www.lesoir.be/922921/article/act ... -eurowings

Extracts :
Brussels Airlines pourrait ainsi devenir Eurowings ou Brusselswings, a laissé entendre lundi à Francfort le patron de Lufthansa, Carsten Spohr.

Du côté de Brussels Airlines, un porte-parole indique de pas être au courant des projets de Lufthansa.

A suggestion : Brüsselhansa ? After all, German is one of the official languages in Belgium.

[sean1982]

Wouldn't it be better Brusselswing?

Sounds too much like Brussels swings!

No, seriously, hold your horses. Nothing has been decided, LH owns only 45% of SN (a minority share, since SN Airholding still owns 55%). And if we take the Austrian example, Austrian Airlines will continue to exist despite the fact that they will operate some Eurowings flight out of Vienna.

Hence, the only likely Eurowings operations in Brussels will be come "cheap" flights operated by SN (or another carrier) on behalf of Eurowings.

Edit: b-west came up with similar ideas seconds before me

minority share indeed, but it's not like SN airholding is in the position to turn a full purchase down. That's the only reason why they are working so hard to get the figures out of the red.

On top of that, putting everything under the same brand would save millions of euros as the whole SN backoffice can disappear

[crew1990]

On top of that, putting everything under the same brand would save millions of euros as the whole SN backoffice can disappear

And the flag carrier of Belgium too...

[sean1982]

I witnessed such a take over up close when FR took over BUZZ in the UK. Everything operational was absorbed into FR, the crew were offered FR contracts on a "take it or leave it" base. (but obviously, unions were not involved I think)

[RoMax]

IF and a I repeat IF Lufthansa goes through with this, it will replace SN in Europe, but that doesn't mean SN will not continue to exist for long haul. Would be the most stupid thing to do to get rid of the SN brand for Africa.

[sn26567]

Lufthansa Official: "Brussels Airlines does NOT become Eurowings or Brusselswings. Only co-operation is possible between Brussels Airlines and Eurowings. As is happening now at Austrian Airlines".

Source: Joost Freys from HLN.

Confirms what I wrote above!

And for those who are interested, this what happened with Austrian: https://www.aviation24.be/airlines_press_r ... e-germany/

[sean1982]

That's not what I am reading

http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/942/Economie/a ... ings.dhtml

Brussels airlines possibly changes names to Eurowings

[Didymus]

Those news reports are all based on the same source: Belga. Unless there's information added from a different source, there's not much use in repeating the same.

[b-west]

That's not what I am reading

http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/942/Economie/a ... ings.dhtml

Brussels airlines possibly changes names to Eurowings

I wouldn't put too much trust in the media. Hastily written stories, often based on hearsay, without much research, just to fill the website.