Brussels Airlines' fleet renewal

[Jetter]

Some drama just posted on hln

http://m.hln.be/hln/m/nl/960/Buitenland ... oudt.dhtml

The article has been rewritten, now with positive feedback from Luc Dewilde, aviation journalist and specialist.

Still very bad publicity for SN. Some of the comments (Dutch):

"Mensen die een ticket kopen bij Brussels Airlines verwachten toch niet dat ze moeten vliegen met Russische brol, in hun reclame zal je zoiets niet ontdekken."

"Het gaat er steeds verder op achteruit bij Brussels Airlines. De toestellen van bmi regional zijn ook al twijfelachtige toestellen. Nog oudere BAe 146's, soms degoutant smerig."

"is dat de kracht van het grote lufthansa? een tweedehandsvloot van russische toestellen voor de belgische markt, tegen premium prijzen. bad deal! mij zien ze niet meer."

"Wat maken mensenlevens uit, als het maar geld opbrengt!"

"Je zal maar reizen in zo'n doodskist, allemaal de schuld van Brussels Airlines, die over lijken gaan, alles voor gewin. Tot zo'n vliegtuig op Brussel neerstort. Maar ja, het is makkelijker met de Russen te lachen..."\\

[Stij]

Still very bad publicity for SN. Some of the comments (Dutch):

People dare to spread their opinion more, but they haven t become smarter...

Stijn

[Jetter]

^^
That's definitly true. Even sadder is that doesn't only apply to people but to journalists as well.

[DeltaWiskey]

The 787 has had much worse teething issues after EIS than the SSJ. Bad publicity is still publicity. Even with all the (negative) press articles regarding the take-over, SN recorded very good traffic figures in December.

[teach]

Still very bad publicity for SN. Some of the comments (Dutch):

"Mensen die een ticket kopen bij Brussels Airlines verwachten toch niet dat ze moeten vliegen met Russische brol, in hun reclame zal je zoiets niet ontdekken."

"Het gaat er steeds verder op achteruit bij Brussels Airlines. De toestellen van bmi regional zijn ook al twijfelachtige toestellen. Nog oudere BAe 146's, soms degoutant smerig."

"is dat de kracht van het grote lufthansa? een tweedehandsvloot van russische toestellen voor de belgische markt, tegen premium prijzen. bad deal! mij zien ze niet meer."

"Wat maken mensenlevens uit, als het maar geld opbrengt!"

"Je zal maar reizen in zo'n doodskist, allemaal de schuld van Brussels Airlines, die over lijken gaan, alles voor gewin. Tot zo'n vliegtuig op Brussel neerstort. Maar ja, het is makkelijker met de Russen te lachen..."\\

Half of those people have already forgotten what they wrote, the other half will soon. This'll cost SN about seven passengers for about a week, and another seven around the time the planes enter service and some 'journalist' writes another hit-piece. After that, nobody will care anymore.

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

These people don't know what they talking about...
You have these kind of people on every site, thats ther only hobby..
Who read these replies anyway, me sometimes...I even answer them now and then... for a good laugh and to see how the stupid people will react who are living between us LOL !
I can hardly call this bad publicity
Most of them don't use the plane anyway and will vote for two flemish parties

CXB

[nordikcam]

Does anyone have some info about the arrival of future OO-SFT and what's happened with OO-SND in GVA ?
What's the planning for arrival of A319/320 ? Thx.

[crew1990]

Does anyone have some info about the arrival of future OO-SFT and what's happened with OO-SND in GVA ?
What's the planning for arrival of A319/320 ? Thx.

OO-SFT is still in Malta for the moment.

OO-SND has been hit by a de-icing truck and need some repair.

[lumumba]

Maybe a stupid question but is there a chance that the A340-600 fleet of LH could be transferred to Brussels Airlines?

Looks a good plane to me for SN with a lot of play load and a cheap one, maybe it's just me because a love to fly with it.

Some things I really like is the window in the toilet...and the WI FI.

[PjVangerven]

Maybe a stupid question but is there a chance that the A340-600 fleet of LH could be transferred to Brussels Airlines?

Looks a good plane to me for SN with a lot of play load and a cheap one, maybe it's just me because a love to fly with it.

Some things I really like is the window in the toilet...and the WI FI.

I also like the a340-600 a lot. They will be cheap, have a long range and high payload. They could use them for example to start flights to SFO or LAX and to some existing African destinations.

[Thomaaas]

Maybe a stupid question but is there a chance that the A340-600 fleet of LH could be transferred to Brussels Airlines?

Looks a good plane to me for SN with a lot of play load and a cheap one, maybe it's just me because a love to fly with it.

Some things I really like is the window in the toilet...and the WI FI.

I also like the a340-600 a lot. They will be cheap, have a long range and high payload. They could use them for example to start flights to SFO or LAX and to some existing African destinations.

They are cheap indeed, but once the fuel goes up they will be very costly to fly...

[Conti764]

Maybe a stupid question but is there a chance that the A340-600 fleet of LH could be transferred to Brussels Airlines?

Looks a good plane to me for SN with a lot of play load and a cheap one, maybe it's just me because a love to fly with it.

Some things I really like is the window in the toilet...and the WI FI.

I also like the a340-600 a lot. They will be cheap, have a long range and high payload. They could use them for example to start flights to SFO or LAX and to some existing African destinations.

They are cheap indeed, but once the fuel goes up they will be very costly to fly...

True, but with SN in LH's hands, it's less of an issue and they could use some of those if SN/LH deems it possible for some flights...

[lumumba]

I also like the a340-600 a lot. They will be cheap, have a long range and high payload. They could use them for example to start flights to SFO or LAX and to some existing African destinations.

They are cheap indeed, but once the fuel goes up they will be very costly to fly...

True, but with SN in LH's hands, it's less of an issue and they could use some of those if SN/LH deems it possible for some flights...

I think that if they choose the 600 it will be for all the fleet..
LH has 18 of them if they take the 14 newest plane's it can be a good plan.
A think that the 600 can fill it's weakness with a very strong play load what looks very important to African destinations.

But I'm not a specialist maybe somebody can say if this is viable.

[SFM]

I think that if they choose the 600 it will be for all the fleet..
LH has 18 of them if they take the 14 newest plane's it can be a good plan.
A think that the 600 can fill it's weakness with a very strong play load what looks very important to African destinations.

But I'm not a specialist maybe somebody can say if this is viable.

I don't think a full fleet of (only) A346's is a good idea for SN's Africa ops.
Too much for several routes, and even impossible on some.
Example: FNA, I thought the A346 is too long to manoeuvre on the taxiways/apron there or something (an issue which popped up in a wetlease situation a few years ago if I remember correct).

[lumumba]

I think that if they choose the 600 it will be for all the fleet..
LH has 18 of them if they take the 14 newest plane's it can be a good plan.
A think that the 600 can fill it's weakness with a very strong play load what looks very important to African destinations.

But I'm not a specialist maybe somebody can say if this is viable.

I don't think a full fleet of (only) A346's is a good idea for SN's Africa ops.
Too much for several routes, and even impossible on some.
Example: FNA, I thought the A346 is too long to manoeuvre on the taxiways/apron there or something (an issue which popped up in a wetlease situation a few years ago if I remember correct).

But I don't think that the SN fleet is big enough to have two different models.
The 300/200 if bought all together are very close the 600 is another story ....

The maintenance cost will jump and the flexibility will go down etc...

[Yuqu12]

I think SN better goes for the A330neo to be honest. Indeed, if fuel prices rise the A340 will cost too much. Btw: how about the pilots? Can an A330 pilot fly an A350 without reform?

[lumumba]

I think SN better goes for the A330neo to be honest. Indeed, if fuel prices rise the A340 will cost too much. Btw: how about the pilots? Can an A330 pilot fly an A350 without reform?

I spoke last month with the pilot crew and yes all the Airbus fleet is compatible even with the A320 you can easily jump to a A330...

[RTM]

A340... Forget about it... won't happen.
As for the A350, I also don't think it will happen, but I like to add that although for the flight crew it is a common type to the rest of the Airbus fleet, and requires minimum conversion, for maintenance personnel the opposite is true. It requires extra training in new construction technologies, thus making it a havier type rating coarse than average. Not the end of the world, but stating that it is easy because it is a common type for pilots, is a bit short sighted.

My guess is that the A330 will be harmonized as wel, like the short and medium haul fleet. I mean, now they have a little bit of every thing, Two length variants, three engine types.... Make more sense to upgrade to a single variant. Either current RR Trent 700 A333, or the NEO A339.

[lumumba]

A340... Forget about it... won't happen.
As for the A350, I also don't think it will happen, but I like to add that although for the flight crew it is a common type to the rest of the Airbus fleet, and requires minimum conversion, for maintenance personnel the opposite is true. It requires extra training in new construction technologies, thus making it a havier type rating coarse than average. Not the end of the world, but stating that it is easy because it is a common type for pilots, is a bit short sighted.

My guess is that the A330 will be harmonized as wel, like the short and medium haul fleet. I mean, now they have a little bit of every thing, Two length variants, three engine types.... Make more sense to upgrade to a single variant. Either current RR Trent 700 A333, or the NEO A339.

I'm not so sure about the A340 now SN is part of the LH group .
I think it's even more expensive for LH to use the A340 than SN and anyway selling them is not an option they worth nothing!
So if they really that cheap it's a calculation and like I said before with a strong play load it can be a winner.

[RTM]

To me it doesn't make sense. After all the effort they put into reducing the costs, by going to as few as practical a/c types, it would be unlogical to let the cost go up again by unharmonizing the fleet. Won't happen.