Indeed OS and VIE are the preferred connection popint for almostr all of Eastern Europe.DannyVDB wrote: ↑04 Jul 2019, 12:40 The reason why OS is more of a network airline is not of its intercontinental network (they have more or less the same number of long haul aircraft as SN) but are the many connections to eastern european destinations (70+% of pax is transfer traffic).
If you look at their route map you hardly see anything in Southern Europe for example: no Madrid, no Lisbon or Porto, no Malaga, Bilbao ... I even am not sure whether they fly Barcelona
Danny
This is a "historical" thing, knowing that Austria was an Empire occupying many of those countries long ago.
Vienna was the cultural center and the reference city for most of the countries.
Investments froim Austria in thisd countries is also very imporatant.
SN / BRU is same or similar story for Africa.
But SN / BRU could certainly catch a lot more PAX by being the best, fastest, smoothest; most convenient and friendliest transfer point (or Hub) for important but smaller business cities in Western Europe.
When Swissair was in charge; SN airready had 10 million PAX a year.
They had frequent connections to and from the 8 or 10 biggest cities in UK, D, F, I , and other countries.
That wazs a good strategy, with smaller planes ( Avro's ).
Creating the market was OK.
Only they failed because BRU at that time was not made for such HUB - function. It was sometimes very busy and chaotic.
Now pier A would be an ideal transfer station for all intra-Schengen destinations.
And with some good thinking also non-Schengen citries can be added with the use of Pier B.
AMS proofs every day thata it is possible (see how many destrinations in UK, Norway etc...).
On top of the intra-Europe connections, the systrem also feeds the long haul flights from KLM and associated airlines.
As AMS is saturated I could imagine that a SN with (eg) about 20 Embraers would become a good choice for business travellers. Same day return. Collaboration between SN and BRU is essential.
Mr. Reutlinger (CEO of Sabena in those days) was certainly on the good way, but the Swissair-top-crooks (and Al Qaeda) decided otherwise.
If SN and BRU stay with the same strategy (or lack of ..) they will only grow a few hundred thousand PAX a year.
Compared to millions extra for AMS and KLM.
HUB strategy is the future.