Brussels Airlines future and financial perspective

[Inquirer]

Let's not forget Lufthansa has quite some interests in Belgium, not just limited to B.air alone, but also more directly (albeit less prominently maybe) through their technical facilities, the catering provider, ground staff, handlers, as well as a huge commercial team here (they visit us regularly at work) etc.
How many people are employed by the wider Lufthansa group in Belgium? 4,000? 5,000? A lot, for sure.
I can imagine that after the unseen attacks on BRU, our head of state is highly interested in the vision for the future of Belgian aviation, straight from the CEO of the biggest aviation employer in our country!
It seems that during that audience reassuring signals were sent about the long term commitment to our country, if one is to believe German press reports, that is.
(see topic related to execution of the call option which is said to be pending).

[RoMax]

Did you read the financial press today RoMax?
You still think I am a fool?
Apologies accepted, but please be more careful with your smileys in the future.

No apologies at all and I still think you are a fool if you seriously think they talked about a deal or whatever there. What happened there was a delegation of the biggest company/group (in terms of staff etc) that was hit by the attacks showing how important Belgium still is for them and vice versa. Don't be so naive it was to influence LH to buy SN (which they were about to do anyway, would be a sign of being shortsighted not buying them now) or SN even hoping it would influence LH.

[sn26567]

If LH is going to take over SN, it is because Spohr and even more so the board sees a gain in taking over SN...

... and as a matter of courtesy, he wanted to inform first the head of state of the prey.

[RoMax]

If LH is going to take over SN, it is because Spohr and even more so the board sees a gain in taking over SN...

... and as a matter of courtesy, he wanted to inform first the head of state of the prey.

Just wanted to add this to my previous post above, but can say it here as well. Obviously the whole visit was not about "trying to influence/convince LH to 'save' SN" as some said. LH management already long made the decision to buy them (it just has to be firmed up by higher bodies of the company, so they can't confirm anything in public) this quarter and his visit to Belgium was a clear sign of saying that they didn't change their minds because if what happened and that's I assume the message they told the palace as well. As said in my previous post, the palace saying how important LH is and LH saying how important Belgium is and probably confirming they'll still buy SN. Nothing more nothing less, just a matter of courtesy, not lobbying on royal level or whatever to 'save SN'....

[Poiu]

RoMax, please read the article in De Tijd and inform yourself about negotiation techniques and lobbying before you shoot the messengers in this forum.

[RoMax]

RoMax, please read the article in De Tijd and inform yourself about negotiation techniques and lobbying before you shoot the messengers in this forum.

Seriously Poiu...
I'm not going to repeat myself over and over again, but I didn't think you were so naive. Or you are just so anti-SN that you are seriously convinced that they needed to be saved by the king of Belgium...

[OO-ITR]

And the Belgian king used his magical power to force the rich German prince to kiss the ugly Belgian frog and when he did, she turned into a beautiful princess....

now enough with the fairy tale stuff, I'm too old for this...

[sean1982]

Any financial figures for march? Normally they would have been communicated for a long time allready?

[Passenger]

Any financial figures for march? Normally they would have been communicated for a long time allready?

Figures must be bad. Terrible. Part of the loss is because Brussels Airlines fully respected aviation legislation EU Rule 261/2004. Brussels Airlines gave all passengers the right to cancel, also during the days after 22/03. One competitor (a low cost carrier) simply told its passengers that the flights were not cancelled, but just reschuduled to/from Charleroi. Whilst Brussels Airlines was loosing bookings ànd was organizing transport for the remaining passengers to/from the regional airports, a competitor cashed in.

CEO Gustin said several times that, given the drama that has happened, he didn't want to talk about figures.

[sean1982]

Any financial figures for march? Normally they would have been communicated for a long time allready?

Figures must be bad. Terrible. Part of the loss is because Brussels Airlines fully respected aviation legislation EU Rule 261/2004. Brussels Airlines gave all passengers the right to cancel, also during the days after 22/03. One competitor (a low cost carrier) simply told its passengers that the flights were not cancelled, but just reschuduled to/from Charleroi. Whilst Brussels Airlines was loosing bookings ànd was organizing transport for the remaining passengers to/from the regional airports, a competitor cashed in.

CEO Gustin said several times that, given the drama that has happened, he didn't want to talk about figures.

Total and utter lies. Passengers got their transport costs reimbursed.

Its off course easy to only talk about figures when they are good and when times are bad attack competitors

[Inquirer]

As far as I am aware, they've never published financial figures over a single month, nor over Qs, or Hs???
Or do you mean, operational figures maybe, like in headcount, ASK, RSK, L/F, etc.?

It might prove a complicated thing to calculate and report on them meaningfully, given they have been flying through 4 airports, 2 of of which situated abroad (and have operated many feeder/positioning flights between those airports), so how do you statistically compare those kind of decentralized operations against those of the same month, last year, when everything was 'normal'???

Other than a simple headcount figure, not much of the operational performance figures are going to be very meaningful for statistical comparison, I am afraid. We'll just have to wait till the month of May to get a better one-on-one view, IMHO.

[Yuqu12]

I heard an interview with Gustin saying they didn't really thinking about the losses now and they are going to continue with their plans (destinations, fleet, ...) like nothing happened. He did say that the figures would be bad, but that the figures from before 22/3 were important (to see whether they were actually still growing).

[Passenger]

Any financial figures for march? Normally they would have been communicated for a long time allready?

Figures must be bad. Terrible. Part of the loss is because Brussels Airlines fully respected aviation legislation EU Rule 261/2004. Brussels Airlines gave all passengers the right to cancel, also during the days after 22/03. One competitor (a low cost carrier) simply told its passengers that the flights were not cancelled, but just reschuduled to/from Charleroi. Whilst Brussels Airlines was loosing bookings ànd was organizing transport for the remaining passengers to/from the regional airports, a competitor cashed in.

CEO Gustin said several times that, given the drama that has happened, he didn't want to talk about figures.

Total and utter lies. Passengers got their transport costs reimbursed.

Its off course easy to only talk about figures when they are good and when times are bad attack competitors

I've replied here:
https://www.aviation24.be/forums/viewtopic ... 74#p332974

[dna]

Just flew back from Zagreb. LF at least 95%. I was booked on the Croatia Airlines flight an hour earlier, but this was cancelled because of lack of capacity in Brussels.
Croatia Airlines suggested to switch to an additional flight they laid on to Amsterdam, with coach service to Diegem. But I had the travel agency change my booking to the SN flight an hour later, on which OU codeshares incidentally. I was notified of the cancellation a week in advance.

[nordikcam]

Just flew back from Zagreb. LF at least 95%. I was booked on the Croatia Airlines flight an hour earlier, but this was cancelled because of lack of capacity in Brussels.
Croatia Airlines suggested to switch to an additional flight they laid on to Amsterdam, with coach service to Diegem. But I had the travel agency change my booking to the SN flight an hour later, on which OU codeshares incidentally. I was notified of the cancellation a week in advance.

After the good news about the reopening of the departure hall in may...a new one about LF ! Only from Zagreb, I know, but it's a beginning...

[DannyVDB]

Hi all,

I left on Tuesday for Bucharest, via FRA. I had a A321 on the BRU-FRA leg and the LF was > 70%. Expected much lower numbers ... But of course there are a lot less flights/day ...

Cheers,
Danny

[RoMax]

Until now it seems load factors are better than were anticipated at this point after the attacks (in general, not just SN), they are handling more pax with this amount of flights than what was expected after the attacks. Question remains how things evolve when airlines go back to 100% schedules and what the effect on demand will still be 2-3 months from now.

[brusselsairlinesfan]

After a quick look @ the departures/arrivals informations on BRU website, it seems that SN is currently operating at least 50% of the whole flights from/to BRU... Is that correct? Any info regarding brussels airlines current average loadfactor? Are they recovering fast?

[Yuqu12]

After a quick look @ the departures/arrivals informations on BRU website, it seems that SN is currently operating at least 50% of the whole flights from/to BRU... Is that correct? Any info regarding brussels airlines current average loadfactor? Are they recovering fast?

Brussels Airlines has the right to fly the most, as they are a home carrier. About the current average loadfactor: I think these are quite high, but more because of the fact that there are still less flights per day to a destination.

[RoMax]

I'm not sure about the exact percentage at this moment, but I would think it is more in the direction of 75-90% actually. Mainly peak hour flights have to be cut, but outside the biggest peaks, most flights can be operated.