Air Belgium in 2019

[jan_olieslagers]

I do have a problem with lies and with liars.

[Airbus330lover]

I do have a problem with lies and with liars.

? who ?

[Passenger]

I do have a problem with lies and with liars.

? who ?

Terzakis.

[ZavCity]

Same here, there is nothing wrong with freedom of speech..But this does not include telling lies..Air belgium was NOT denied access to BRU by BIAC..so they do not have to tell in a press statement they were not wanted in BRU!
amen
gtz
paul

[Airbus330lover]

Perhaps only a misunderstanding..... And who knows. Perhaps only searching Cathay, with undiscolsed clausules too.
Common in business

[737MAX]

Shocking statement from CEO NT in some newspapers, as reported in an article on the homepage today:

"...The problems were compounded by the opening of the Brussels – Hong Kong route by Cathay Pacific. Terzakis regrets that Brussels Airport welcomed Cathay, a direct competitor, with open arms instead of favouring national companies...."
https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/air- ... he-future/

This is untrue, and it's an insult towards Brussels Airport:

1.[/i]

I do not see any insult here.
Do you have a problem with freedom of speech?? and freedom of Opinion ?

The CEO gives his comments and opinions.
He is a businessman, so he has probably taken all aspects in account.
Including prices to operate to/from BRU.
AB made a decision . CRL won. BRU lost a customer.

CRL is not a very comfortable airport, quite messy indeed. Chaotic even.
But they go for low cost. CRL's success and continuous growth shows their formula works.

Of course, you can be sure, there will be new long haul destinations from CRL.
That is because Wallonia has an Aviation Policy.

AB is first, but other long haul airlines, and destibations will follow.

In which way would CRL be more chaotic than BRU?
Just curious here.

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Short reply : CRL can be very chaotic...long ques, too narrow ,too small hall ways, shortage of seats.... Gates 1-10 with the stairs,. Deboarding from the new terminal...
This is realistic...
You can say,I say CRL is chaotic...nothing wrong to say that... But I take some cheap fares from CRL... But if not I Prefer BRU-EIN and DUS by far even AMS
Btw more expensive parkings also and bad connected by trainde.. ! And that damn white tent for all that years now..

CXB

[Passenger]

Perhaps only a misunderstanding..... And who knows. Perhaps only searching Cathay, with undisclosed clausules too.
Common in business

This is the incentive program at/from Brussels Airport for 01/04/2016 till 31/03/2021:
EN:
https://www.brusselsairport.be/en/aviat ... ve-program
NL:
https://www.brusselsairport.be/nl/aviat ... ve-program
FR:
https://www.brusselsairport.be/fr/aviat ... ve-program

It is very very unlikely that Brussels Airport has done something special for Cathay on top of that. That would make them (= BRU) vulnerable if, for whatever reason, the relationship with CX ends. It's illegal too, because it's unfair competition. And specially at large firms like BRU and CX, it's impossible to keep things secret: there is allways the risk that someone leaves the company and joins a competitor.

[JOVAN]

Hi,

Short reply : CRL can be very chaotic...long ques, too narrow ,too small hall ways, shortage of seats.... Gates 1-10 with the stairs,. Deboarding from the new terminal...
This is realistic...
You can say,I say CRL is chaotic...nothing wrong to say that... But I take some cheap fares from CRL... But if not I Prefer BRU-EIN and DUS by far even AMS
Btw more expensive parkings also and bad connected by trainde.. ! And that damn white tent for all that years now..

CXB

That is indeed what I mean.
It would be easy to organize things in a better and logical, pleasant way.

The TENT is a real joke. Or a pain in the .. if you want.
PAX have to make a big tour to go thru it.
The TENT is useless and even polce men & security personnel inside are ashamed.

The TENT is only there because the local Police Officer in charge wants it that way.
Too many little BARONS, also in the Police organization.
Serious Belgian disease.

[JOVAN]

Perhaps only a misunderstanding..... And who knows. Perhaps only searching Cathay, with undiscolsed clausules too.
Common in business

Indeed. Hidden favours ("don't tell anybody !!") are quite usual in Business.

I would personnaly have preferred AB at BRU.

Let us not call Mr. Terzakis is liar unless this can be proved.

[jan_olieslagers]

...The problems were compounded by the opening of the Brussels – Hong Kong route by Cathay Pacific. Terzakis regrets that Brussels Airport welcomed Cathay, a direct competitor, with open arms instead of favouring national companies...."

I leave it to him to offer proof that CX were offered better terms than himself could have obtained. Or what else does the "with open arms" stand for? Were their arms less open for Air Belgium?

Or, wait, is he only complaining that he did not get anything better than the Chinese? In that case I must admit the word "lie" is all too heavy. But how realistic was that to expect?

[sn26567]

Discussion going out of hand here. I removed a few posts.

[sn26567]

Hi,

Short reply : CRL can be very chaotic...long ques, too narrow ,too small hall ways, shortage of seats.... Gates 1-10 with the stairs,. Deboarding from the new terminal...
This is realistic...
You can say,I say CRL is chaotic...nothing wrong to say that... But I take some cheap fares from CRL... But if not I Prefer BRU-EIN and DUS by far even AMS
Btw more expensive parkings also and bad connected by trainde.. ! And that damn white tent for all that years now..

CXB

But at least passengers leave at the same time as their baggage! And aircraft get refuelled!
And when there is a huge problem at BRU, TUI redirects its planes to CRL.

[cathay belgium]

Ha André ,
But we have our part also Skeyes,Bagage,...
We are living in europe ! Haha Europe first..
Well location of your home is the biggest factor here...
CRL is a long way for me, expensive parking but Nice fares.....
EIN is just around my corner but not enough frequencies here to enjoy all the low fares... And expensive parking..
AMS a bit further then BRU, cheap parking, nice big airport but not really cheap fares...
DUS the same but a bit further..
Well BRU stays homebase here with a mixture of all ..

CXB

[Passenger]

The airport infrastructure is important/relevant when you have direct competition. Example: Cathay from BRU versus Air Belgium from CRL. Brussels wins. But that is history now.

Why does Air Belgium wants own flights again? Probably because the profit margins on their ACMI operations are too thin to survive on long term. So they have chosen for Martinique/Guadeloupe: so be it.

Airport infrastructure at CRL is not the main issue now. Their first problem is their image of unreliability: their HKG fiasco will work against them for years to come. Their second problem is their schedule. Two flights per week is fine for fly-and-drive tourists and hotel-only tourists. But for cruise travel - and that's 32% of tourism to Martinique and Guadeloupe - two flights per week is little. What if the cruise ends on the day of a return flight? Two or three additional hotel nights have to be added then, making Air France cheaper and more convenient then Air Belgium.

And their third problem: their financial result, causing a risk for touroperators. Apparently a capital increase of 7M has been arranged during their annual general meeting on 25th May (source: L'Echo, 16/07/2019). But till today, that hasn't been officially published.

[TLspotting]

Air Belgium to operate “World Tour – Air Cruise 2019” for French travel agency Safrans Du Monde :

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/air- ... s-du-monde

In the article of Pagtour (https://pagtour.info/air-belgium-incont ... uadeloupe/) CCO and CEO say :

Et enfin, ce qu’Air Belgium a déjà accompli :

20% des sièges vers les 2 nouvelles destinations ont déjà été vendus.
1.000 places a/r au prix de lancement de 345 eur ont trouvé preneurs en quelques jours.
L’espace fret vers et à partir de ces destinations est sold out.
Pour le reste la location des appareils se poursuit sans discontinuer, que ce soit pour Air France ou British Airways ou Lot, ou encore en charter pour le Ponant, et même un Tour du Monde de 3 semaines pour Safrans au départ de Paris fin octobre prochain.

Et pour 2020 ?

Les ambitions de la compagnie sont multiples, n’en déplaisent aux contradicteurs.

4 nouvelles destinations réparties sur l’été et l’hiver 2020.
Un nombre d’avions qui devrait augmenter dans un futur proche.
Et pourquoi pas des vols également au départ de Bruxelles National…

In brief :

- 20% of whole seats already bought
- 1000 return flights at €345 bought in a few days...
- Cargo space is sold out

2020 ambitions :

- 4 new destinations for S20 and W20/21.
- Number of aircraft should increase soon. (A330?)
- Might be considering flights from Brussels Airport.

Air Transport World (https://atwonline.com/airports-routes/a ... -hong-kong) says that 2 new transatlantic destinations should open in the future (to be disclosed in due time), FDF and PTP might be 2 distinctive flights in the future...

ACMI throughout 2020 (while flying to China as from April 2020)...

[Duke]

Air Belgium to operate “World Tour – Air Cruise 2019” for French travel agency Safrans Du Monde :

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/air- ... s-du-monde

Three observations :
1) This "World Cruise" is scheduled to take place in about 2 months from now... I wonder who will book this on that short notice... Mostly those events are announced (more than) one year in advance...
2) I'm not sure someone who will book this will be happy to be seated in the economy cabin of the plane... Mostly those World Cruises are operated by a dedicated all business plane...
3) The tour seems to include a flight Lima-Cuzco and back in the A340. Having been at Cuzco myself last year, I can not imagine that an (even lightly loaded) A340 can take off from Cuzco...The departure requires a steep climb out to avoid the surrounding mountains. Only A319, A 320 or B 737's operate to and from Cuzco...
The runway is rather short, can only be used in one direction, and the airport is located at more than 3.000 m altitude...

Regards,

Duke.

[luchtzak]

Duke,

I am not familiar with that airport, and I am not a pilot, but on Twitter, somebody is asking the same question:

[737MAX]

LIM-CUZ-LIM are short flights, rwy is 3400m long.
Not familiar with that airport, but I guess they did their maths...

[TLspotting]

586km between the 2 airports. Won't be a full flight neither so maths quickly done I suppose.