Brussels Airlines in 2018

[AirOpinion]

Rumours, rumours & rumours!
Let's try, all of us, to just focus on the facts instead of acting out emotionally.
Today was a great lesson.

[Conti764]

I hope the unions and workers stay calm. The best way to prove SN's worth is to continue to work hard and even improve figures so LH/EW can't do anything but make SN grow...

[luchtzak]

Update 21:35

Brussels Airlines will continue to connect Kinshasa seven times a week, a spokeswoman of Brussels Airlines explained to RTBF. This will remain the case until the Congolese Civil Aviation Authority approves the new flight schedule.

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/lufth ... te-effect/

[brusselsairlinesfan]

I am pretty sure that brussels airlines will be rebranded, don’t you?!

[sn-remember]

Rumours, rumours & rumours!
Let's try, all of us, to just focus on the facts instead of acting out emotionally.
Today was a great lesson.

Which great lesson ?

[crew1990]

Rumours, rumours & rumours!
Let's try, all of us, to just focus on the facts instead of acting out emotionally.
Today was a great lesson.

Which great lesson ?

The lesson for me is not to listen to the press anymore in this kind of situation! All they want is to writte sensational stuff without knowing why and how?

[travellover]

Rumours, rumours & rumours!
Let's try, all of us, to just focus on the facts instead of acting out emotionally.
Today was a great lesson.

Which great lesson ?

The lesson for me is not to listen to the press anymore in this kind of situation! All they want is to writte sensational stuff without knowing why and how?

I agree.
But yes, the fact that they have fired Bernard Gustin and Jan De Raeymaeker is very upseting.

[Acid-drop]

VRT just send a breaking news message:

Etienne Davignon: "Brussels Airlines remains a Belgian company and will not be integrated into Eurowings"

Sure, for now...

How long did it take for the banks to lose their names ?

[Sai]

I am pretty sure that brussels airlines will be rebranded, don’t you?!

In due time...I think so yes, but not yet.
Why else replace management? To change nothing?

Probably a soft and phased approach...first no change...then first planes with soft EW or hybrid livery and stickers 'operated by Brussels Airlines'...then send some new but full EW-livery planes to "support" the "sudden" grow of SN.
But that's just a guess

[brusselsairlinesfan]

I am pretty sure that brussels airlines will be rebranded, don’t you?!

In due time...I think so yes, but not yet.
Why else replace management? To change nothing?

Probably a soft and phased approach...first no change...then first planes with soft EW or hybrid livery and stickers 'operated by Brussels Airlines'...then send some new but full EW-livery planes to "support" the "sudden" grow of SN.
But that's just a guess

I would bet on belgianwings or eurobelgianwings

[sn26567]

How I see what happened over the weekend and today:

Lufthansa boss Carsten Spohr wanted to sack the two top managers of Brussels Airlines (Gustin and De Raeymaeker) for insufficient financial results in 2017. And Spohr saw that as an opportunity to make a big step forward in his pet project Eurowings.

For that, he needed to convince the Board of SN Airholding, that he co-chairs with Viscount Etienne Davignon. Of course, the agenda for that Board meeting is set in advance. Thus Davignon could have a quick look at his address book and contact some 100 Belgian CEOs and influencers and convince them to write an open letter to try and save the Belgian airline.

And then, at the Board meeting, it was a compromise à la Belge: OK, you sack the two top managers and you replace them with a German CEO, but you keep the Brussels Airlines name, planes and hybrid model. Of course, in cooperation with Eurowings.

Alea jacta est.

[evyncke]

What happens when the new CEO is the ex German marketing leader? You post on Facebook some b*s* such as "We will remain Belgium's home airline and we'll continue to grow. Together with Eurowings, we'll shape the European airline industry."

I am Star Alliance Gold for 15 years, and the worse was to have a LH ticket operated by Eurowings: no bagage allowance, no lounge access... So, why not flying Ryanair or Easyjet if LH does not consider frequent flyers?

And of course, Mr. Davignon is self-glorifying himself for his n-th fiasco

[evyncke]

[Thus Davignon could have a quick look at his address book and contact some 100 Belgian CEOs and influencers and convince them to write an open letter to try and save the Belgian airline.

I hope that you are right and that I am wrong...

[Boavida]

So many elements don't add up in this story...

If Brussels Airlines stays as it is and is even supposed to grow, then WHY OH WHY, is the company not a part of the Lufthansa Group as Swiss and Austrian, - but a part of a low cost airline Eurowings?

This doesn't make any sense.

[Flanker3]

The next stages for this project can be guessed IMO.

They will ride the summer as it's already scheduled. It's meaningless to make big changes now.
In the meanwhile, Germany will send diplomats to all over Africa to get bilaterals written, where needed.
Also, they will start to indoctrinate SN staff to get used to the idea of being part of the bigger entity, Eurowings... explain the history and the target, establish who's the competition, etc...
At first, 2 A330's fly for EW out of DUS, operated by SN.
Then the fligts will be codeshared between SN and EW.
Then slowly, routes get flipped over one by one and badged as EW flights "operated by SN".
Perhaps even routes like FRA and MUC could be given to EW "operated by SN" as proof of "growth projects".
Some German pilots start to come over in BRU "to pick up the slack in crewing" in busy periods, only to remain or be replaced by other German crews.

Perhaps one or two bad results will be posted, and then comes the "we decided that it makes more financial sense to operate longhaul from EW's main longhaul hubs, MUC or DUS".

Then follows: "since we don't have longhaul flights anymore in BRU, we don't need such a big shorthaul fleet in BRU".
I wouldn't be surprised if the aircraft size is also downsized towards something like the CS300.

IMO back-office and maintenance will gradually be downsized, perhaps "opportunities" will be offered in Germany, but only to the best performers.

People's ability to forget and adapt will be used to make it a gradual process.

[convair]

On the other hand, the whole thing is quite weird. It's like they adopted Gustin's vision for the future but that they went ahead with the terminations to save face. The fact that both "support" the transition suggests that they probably got a huge bonus to go away without making to much fuss.
Could be that the board meeting went against Spohr's wishes after all, we'll probably never know...

Could be some truth in this, and that kind of scenario is not unusual.

Otoh, Gustin has probably given SN most of what he could bring and it's not a bad moment to make a management change. And when Christina Foerster was given the Commercial job last year, coming straight from the LH cradle, Gustin must have understood the purpose of that move.

However, I don't understand why LH needed to make a CFO change, if not to integrate that function into EW, which would make sense, from a group point of view.

Regarding the "new" COO Thibault Demoulin, who was in charge of that job until now? According to the short cv I have seen, it might have been him under a different title. If so, I think that he is doing a great job, imho, as SN is showing a lot of flexibility in operations, taking into account the (lack of) resources they have, particularly on long-haul.

Meanwhile, let's not speculate too much; I hope we'll know more after the Wednesday meeting.

[BrightCedars]

Une tempête dans un verre d'eau

The new owner is simply taking the pilot seat and is letting the former pilot move away in a gracious way.

They will now be able to deploy their strategy which certainly won't kill the local business but will certainly mean further integration as far as the European domestic network and business model are concerned.

LH group was e.g. announcing a reference configuration for all A320 family aircraft in the future. Uniforms, upholstery, carpets, logos and colours on amenities, and body paint will be the main distinguishing factors.

[sn26567]

Regarding the "new" COO Thibault Demoulin, who was in charge of that job until now?

That was Gustin himself, and it might be a part of the problem that led to his dismissal, since he didn't have any experience on that field.

The press release said that two more members of the Board will be nominated later: I guess the CFO will be one of them.

[eurojet]

Myself working in an industry where being owned as a subsidiary by a foreign entity is the norm, not the exception, I find the nativity of the Belgian public incredible. And honestly, I find that LH is still using a rather “soft hand”. IF you give away all the leverage you have over your owner, than you end up in a situation like this. Ah so Belgian .. short term strategy, zero sense of responsibility and lack of ambition .. As Leopold II said .. “small country, small minds” …

[Inquirer]

Myself working in an industry where being owned as a subsidiary by a foreign entity is the norm, not the exception, I find the nativity of the Belgian public incredible. And honestly, I find that LH is still using a rather “soft hand”.

Funny, because I was about to post the same thing with all the dust settled, this morning!
For all the almost hysterical drama made each time some change is made to B.air (see only last weekend for the latest examples of such), one can hardly but notice how softhanded everything is actually being done at this company!

I know it will infuriate many flagwaving fans here, but despite all the great operational achievements by B.air, so far the financial return on investment has been quite meager and it should be clear to everybody that realistic expectations for any such returns in future are quite limited too due to the very competitive landscape at their home market combined with their inherently small size as an almost stand-alone business.

Many other foreign shareholders woudn't have had such a long term horizon nor an almost inexhaustable patience with an equity investment abroad as Lufthansa once again showed here, let me tell you that: an Anglo-Saxon style type of managed company would long have been more radical.

Those who still dream about a take over by British Airways in 2008 for instance as some sort of much brighter alternative to Lufthansa's investment, would have either seen them close the shop completely in 2013, or at best be merged with vueling almost overnight and in full. No way they would have invested another €100M and given them 4 years to get back on their feet with ryanair announcing a base at their homebase, while building on their own brand's reputation!

Une tempête dans un verre d'eau

The new owner is simply taking the pilot seat and is letting the former pilot move away in a gracious way.
They will now be able to deploy their strategy which certainly won't kill the local business but will certainly mean further integration as far as the European domestic network and business model are concerned.

Indeed.
They just seem to want to finally run the place they own and which has already costed them a small fortune, themselves. And they apparently want to do it in order to run the place a bit more rational than it has been done so far, meaning more focus on their core businesses and strenghts, and more emphasis on making use of logical synergies which so far have been refused to be considered for no obvious reason but the almost childish desire to do all things alone, even if it means doing pretty much the same things twice: eurowings' business model as of today is pretty much that of brussels airlines in fact, apart from some details, or vice versa, as you wish: their apparent refusal not to call themselves a hybrid airline -while they really are- is just as childish as a reluctance to work with them because of that.