Air Belgium in 2018

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TLspotting
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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by TLspotting »

There was also an Interview on La Première yesterday morning of Jean Claude Cloquet (BSCA CEO) but hé was saying that the 7 destinations will be all operational as of June... 18 or 19 ?
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sn26567
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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by sn26567 »

TLspotting wrote: 02 Feb 2018, 11:35 There was also an Interview on La Première yesterday morning of Jean Claude Cloquet (BSCA CEO) but hé was saying that the 7 destinations will be all operational as of June... 18 or 19 ?
His name is "Jean-Jacques" Cloquet. And he clearly meant 2018.
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SLM
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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by SLM »

7 destinations as of June 2018...? OMG

Passenger
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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by Passenger »

Anyone with a subscription on HLN.be here, able to post a summary from this article?
https://www.hln.be/de-krant/air-belgium ... d~ae1dfd59
"...No licence, no aircraft, no runway. Not possible to start nonstop flights to Hong Kong from end of March, aviation experts say..."

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luchtzak
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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by luchtzak »

Passenger wrote: 02 Feb 2018, 15:30 Anyone with a subscription on HLN.be here, able to post a summary from this article?
https://www.hln.be/de-krant/air-belgium ... d~ae1dfd59
"...No licence, no aircraft, no runway. Not possible to start nonstop flights to Hong Kong from end of March, aviation experts say..."
The comments in the article have previously been discussed in this forum topic.

- Still waiting for AOC
- Without an AOC no aircraft
- Runway not long enough to take-off at Charleroi at full capacity.

nordikcam
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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by nordikcam »

luchtzak wrote: 02 Feb 2018, 15:51
Passenger wrote: 02 Feb 2018, 15:30 Anyone with a subscription on HLN.be here, able to post a summary from this article?
https://www.hln.be/de-krant/air-belgium ... d~ae1dfd59
"...No licence, no aircraft, no runway. Not possible to start nonstop flights to Hong Kong from end of March, aviation experts say..."
The comments in the article have previously been discussed in this forum topic.

- Still waiting for AOC
- Without an AOC no aircraft
- Runway not long enough to take-off at Charleroi at full capacity.
It seems to me that we are, however, so cautious with aviation safety. Lately another company was removed a right of exploitation for having used, during a take-off, the entire runway before flight. In Colombia, if I remember. Here one can leave from an airport with a runway too short. I'm surprised and it's a euphemism even if it will be without me of course!

FLYAIR10
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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by FLYAIR10 »

..No licence, no aircraft, no runway. Not possible to start nonstop flights to Hong Kong from end of March, aviation experts say..."
Well,maybe Air Belgium can ask VLM to come to the rescue for their first flights end of march.. :lol:
And start operating from LGG (or OST...) :lol:

Shengenzone
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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by Shengenzone »

FLYAIR10 wrote: 02 Feb 2018, 17:23
..No licence, no aircraft, no runway. Not possible to start nonstop flights to Hong Kong from end of March, aviation experts say..."
Well,maybe Air Belgium can ask VLM to come to the rescue for their first flights end of march.. :lol:
And start operating from LGG (or OST...) :lol:
Haha at least they got enough AOC's...

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KriVa
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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by KriVa »

nordikcam wrote: 02 Feb 2018, 16:27 It seems to me that we are, however, so cautious with aviation safety. Lately another company was removed a right of exploitation for having used, during a take-off, the entire runway before flight. In Colombia, if I remember. Here one can leave from an airport with a runway too short. I'm surprised and it's a euphemism even if it will be without me of course!
Just to set the record straight:
The runway at CRL is NOT too short for an A340, it is too short to operate an A340 at Max Take Off Mass. There’s a huge difference there. The take-off you mention in Colombia did most likely not comply with the rules set forward by regulating agencies.
An A340 can operate without any safety restriction from CRL, as long as they restrict the amount of weight they try to get airborne.
Thomas

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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by FLYAIR10 »

Just to set the record straight:
The runway at CRL is NOT too short for an A340, it is too short to operate an A340 at Max Take Off Mass. There’s a huge difference there. The take-off you mention in Colombia did most likely not comply with the rules set forward by regulating agencies.
An A340 can operate without any safety restriction from CRL, as long as they restrict the amount of weight they try to get airborne.
What is the planned seat-configuration of the A340's AB intends to use?

From an earlier post somewhere I seem to remember that the maximum number of PAX the A340 will be able to lift from CRL to HKG non-stop would be 257 at 'normal conditions'. But it was also mentioned that they would be able to carry (max)12 tons of cargo at the same time? or not? If they load no cargo from Belgium,would that mean they can take a full load of passengers then on the CRL-HKG leg anyhow?

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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by sn26567 »

FLYAIR10 wrote: 02 Feb 2018, 21:07 What is the planned seat-configuration of the A340's AB intends to use?
The seating maps have not yet been published on the airbelgium.com website.
FLYAIR10 wrote: 02 Feb 2018, 21:07 From an earlier post somewhere I seem to remember that the maximum number of PAX the A340 will be able to lift from CRL to HKG non-stop would be 257 at 'normal conditions'. But it was also mentioned that they would be able to carry (max)12 tons of cargo at the same time? or not? If they load no cargo from Belgium,would that mean they can take a full load of passengers then on the CRL-HKG leg anyhow?
The restrictions on departure from CRL are 257 pax and less than the possible 12 tonnes of freight. There are no restrictions on departure from HKG.
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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by mdm »

The A340 comming from Finnair had the configuration C45W40Y172=257 already. So, nothing is changed, only the seatcovers.

Amavro
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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by Amavro »

AF is operating an A340 at Princess Juliana with a runway of 2180m. CRL's runway length is 2550. I don't get what's wrong with that ? A small passenger restriction is clearly not one of the issue here, even less if it is only for a couple of years. On top of that, at the beggining, the planes of a new carrier are rarely full..

CRL was the choice to make :
-Cheaper
-New terminal for business class passengers (That kind of traveller is only looking for a fast and comfy travel, including during the airport ==> at CRL, 20 min from parking to the gate thanks to the new terminal, and don't tell me they will come by bus at the airport ;) ), and for the rest, the chineese doesn't care about the airport as long as they got their bus tour at their arrival.
-At BRU, Cathay would have deleted them. That's clearly obvious, isn't it ?
-OFC, the politics had a role to play, but the flemish could have help that airline if they wanted to. But we have seen that Brussels Airlines is, from far, well beter managed : we just lost our national carrier to Eurowings :D So i'll just be happy to still have a belgian name printed on a plane...

We should just hope they will succeed, and imo they certainly will.

Poiu
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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by Poiu »

nordikcam wrote: 02 Feb 2018, 16:27
It seems to me that we are, however, so cautious with aviation safety. Lately another company was removed a right of exploitation for having used, during a take-off, the entire runway before flight. In Colombia, if I remember. Here one can leave from an airport with a runway too short. I'm surprised and it's a euphemism even if it will be without me of course!
Your joking, right?
If in Colombia they put 10 people in an elevator designed for 6 and the elevator breaks, are you going to prohibit to put 10 people in an elevator in Charleroi which is designed for 12???
Just to make it clear: before take off, pilots calculate a weight at which the aircraft is able to to take off, taking into account an engine failure at the worst possible moment.
An A340 taking off from Charleroi at 250 ton has exactly the same safety margin as the same A340 taking off from Brussels at 280 tons. If the A340 takes off from Brussels at 250 ton, the pilots would reduce the take off thrust to reduce engine wear, this would result in the same safety margin in Bru as in Crl.
If you attempt to take off from Charleroi at 280 ton, you get the Colombia scenario. (Simplified example).
Last edited by Poiu on 03 Feb 2018, 15:36, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by wapo84 »

On 31/01 ferry AIB844 LETL -LFBT A343 F-WXAG

TLspotting
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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by TLspotting »

sn26567 wrote: 02 Feb 2018, 14:00
TLspotting wrote: 02 Feb 2018, 11:35 There was also an Interview on La Première yesterday morning of Jean Claude Cloquet (BSCA CEO) but hé was saying that the 7 destinations will be all operational as of June... 18 or 19 ?
His name is "Jean-Jacques" Cloquet. And he clearly meant 2018.
Right !

Today at Vakantiesalon Brussels :
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Shonix
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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by Shonix »

Darjeeling wrote: 02 Feb 2018, 09:19
crew1990 wrote: 31 Jan 2018, 15:23
Didymus wrote: 31 Jan 2018, 15:09

BRU is on Flemish territory where the official language is Dutch only. The use of other languages in for instance signs at the airport is an exception on the language legislation. The majority of the BRU staff speaking French doesn't make it a French speaking airport...
BRU is a case very special as this is the national airport of Belgium, I'm not really convince that the worker are more french speaking or Dutch speaking, it's really depending where you go in the airport, most of the people working in duty-free shop are more dutch speaking. The one of helixir, certain other shop and restaurant, the hairdresser are french speaking. Tuifly is more Dutch speaking, At Brussels Airlines it's more Dutch speaking for the cabin crew and check in community, but it's half and half in te office. I actually think there is job for everyone.
Half/half in the office ?!? Let me laugh. The HR payroll at SN is clearly 80% Flemish - 20% french speaking. Taking the whole community into account. I don't want to start any polemic here, but truth needs to be said and honestly said. Zaventem is clearly a Flemish airport where French speaking staff is tolerated. And don't tell me it's about bilingualism. There is a real let-down amongst youngest flemish staff as far as french and english skills are concerned.

In fact people like Gustin and Feist are just firewalls to make things prettier for the Brussels and Walloon media.
Couldn't agree more.

Flanker3
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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by Flanker3 »

I think that Air Belgium needs to consider operating to/from Tokyo and more specifically HND, pushing for slots at that airport.
Out of CRL, this should be doable with a decent load given prevailing Westerly winds.
FR can provide feeding on the CRL end, and I think that they can find a partner in JAL at the HND end.

I think that this will be very succesful, despite competition from NH at BRU.
NH is charging high fares and doing good business on the corporates, but they can't offer enough seats for tour operators and lower yielding O&D or price sensitive corporates.

This is reflected in the fact that AY is flying full loads of Japanese to HEL for connections, to the point that they're making announcements in Japanese. Yes, BRU-HEL has Japanese language announcements!

China mainland is a good market currently, I've been saying so for years.

So I really hope that they will add a 4 weekly service to HND in the near future, and certainly before they consider waisting resources on SFO.

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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by sean1982 »

Shonix wrote: 03 Feb 2018, 17:41
Darjeeling wrote: 02 Feb 2018, 09:19
crew1990 wrote: 31 Jan 2018, 15:23

BRU is a case very special as this is the national airport of Belgium, I'm not really convince that the worker are more french speaking or Dutch speaking, it's really depending where you go in the airport, most of the people working in duty-free shop are more dutch speaking. The one of helixir, certain other shop and restaurant, the hairdresser are french speaking. Tuifly is more Dutch speaking, At Brussels Airlines it's more Dutch speaking for the cabin crew and check in community, but it's half and half in te office. I actually think there is job for everyone.
Half/half in the office ?!? Let me laugh. The HR payroll at SN is clearly 80% Flemish - 20% french speaking. Taking the whole community into account. I don't want to start any polemic here, but truth needs to be said and honestly said. Zaventem is clearly a Flemish airport where French speaking staff is tolerated. And don't tell me it's about bilingualism. There is a real let-down amongst youngest flemish staff as far as french and english skills are concerned.

In fact people like Gustin and Feist are just firewalls to make things prettier for the Brussels and Walloon media.
Couldn't agree more.
Actually, I don't. In the last 6 months i have never been able to complete a drinks or food order in flemish at BRU and have to switch to french (because english is also problematic sometimes) to order something. ANd I fly from there 5 times a month.

crew1990
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Re: Air Belgium: a rebirth?

Post by crew1990 »

But we have the same problem in the other side, it often happen that people doesn't want to answer to me in French while i'm the client, what is it for a mentality, even if in some cases it's simply because there are not able too. This is in both side, unfortunately, French speaking people AND Dutch speaking people should make a little effort and be a little bit more open-minded, I'm not asking to have a philosophic discussion but at least, good morning, what would you like to eat, it cost 10€50, thanks you very much, have a safe flight, is all I need no more, in French, Dutch and English.

I remember when I was working for Ryanair in Bergamo, I was doing the service with the little Italian skill that I had from day 1, It was far to be good at the beginning but at least I tried, and this is the way you learn.

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