Brussels Airlines in 2019

jan_olieslagers · Post by **jan_olieslagers** » 15 Oct 2019, 13:22

Indeed right to put things into perspective, and to compare with the only more or less comparable country, at least in Europe, that is Switzerland.
And also right that there are more important issues, at least for now, and probably for a long time after.

@Passenger: thanks for pointing out the exception for 1930 Zaventem, that was new to me.

Darjeeling · Post by **Darjeeling** » 15 Oct 2019, 15:05

Full article FYI:

flightlover · Post by **flightlover** » 15 Oct 2019, 15:46

And this is the root cause of the linguistic problems in Belgium. Will any Walloon company translate every communication in Dutch if they have no sites situated in Flanders? I doubt it. But when french speaking people come to work or live in Flanders they want any communication in French. Why? because they do not feel Dutch is a language needed to be educated in school. It's just an optional course for them.

There are so many unemployed workers in Brussels that, if they wanted to learn Dutch, could be working at the airport.

lumumba · Post by **lumumba** » 15 Oct 2019, 16:45

flightlover wrote: ↑15 Oct 2019, 15:46 And this is the root cause of the linguistic problems in Belgium. Will any Walloon company translate every communication in Dutch if they have no sites situated in Flanders? I doubt it. But when french speaking people come to work or live in Flanders they want any communication in French. Why? because they do not feel Dutch is a language needed to be educated in school. It's just an optional course for them.

There are so many unemployed workers in Brussels that, if they wanted to learn Dutch, could be working at the airport.

Ok Brussels Airport is in Flandres let ALL planes fly over Flanders and not Brussels!

sean1982 · Post by **sean1982** » 15 Oct 2019, 17:29

lumumba wrote: ↑15 Oct 2019, 16:45
flightlover wrote: ↑15 Oct 2019, 15:46 And this is the root cause of the linguistic problems in Belgium. Will any Walloon company translate every communication in Dutch if they have no sites situated in Flanders? I doubt it. But when french speaking people come to work or live in Flanders they want any communication in French. Why? because they do not feel Dutch is a language needed to be educated in school. It's just an optional course for them.

There are so many unemployed workers in Brussels that, if they wanted to learn Dutch, could be working at the airport.
Ok Brussels Airport is in Flandres let ALL planes fly over Flanders and not Brussels!

What petty childish discussions here wth ....

Conti764 · Post by **Conti764** » 15 Oct 2019, 17:36

flightlover wrote: ↑15 Oct 2019, 15:46 And this is the root cause of the linguistic problems in Belgium. Will any Walloon company translate every communication in Dutch if they have no sites situated in Flanders? I doubt it. But when french speaking people come to work or live in Flanders they want any communication in French. Why? because they do not feel Dutch is a language needed to be educated in school. It's just an optional course for them.

There are so many unemployed workers in Brussels that, if they wanted to learn Dutch, could be working at the airport.

They already do. A lot of employees at BRU are French speaking.

I can't open the full article. Was the representative denied access to the meeting? Was it legally right to do so? If so, well done by the prick who felt the need to get this story out in times when SN has more urgent issues to take care of...

travellover · Post by **travellover** » 15 Oct 2019, 17:43

Everyone from anywhere (in Belgium or abroad) might have to take a plane at/to BRU, everyone in Brussels, in Flanders and Wallonia can share any noise disadvantage from BRU. Each at a given time might need to understand the languages of other people, so ball in the center. And back to aviation matters.

Jetter · Post by **Jetter** » 15 Oct 2019, 18:14

lumumba wrote: ↑15 Oct 2019, 16:45
flightlover wrote: ↑15 Oct 2019, 15:46 And this is the root cause of the linguistic problems in Belgium. Will any Walloon company translate every communication in Dutch if they have no sites situated in Flanders? I doubt it. But when french speaking people come to work or live in Flanders they want any communication in French. Why? because they do not feel Dutch is a language needed to be educated in school. It's just an optional course for them.

There are so many unemployed workers in Brussels that, if they wanted to learn Dutch, could be working at the airport.
Ok Brussels Airport is in Flandres let ALL planes fly over Flanders and not Brussels!

Brussels is the capital of Flanders so I don't see the logic here.

The people complaining about this rational policy should try te see how far they get speaking Dutch at the Brussels airport in Wallonia. I think we all know that speaking French at the Brussels airport located in Flanders is an easier experience.

DeltaWiskey · Post by **DeltaWiskey** » 15 Oct 2019, 20:07

What a nonsense discussion. The principal language within the company is English, just like it is the most aviation companies. As required by law, labour agreements / contracts are made up in Dutch, French, English, German, etc. Most of the employees speak the 3 main languages quite fluently. As you would expect, there are departments where the majority of the employees are native Dutch or native French speaking, this then becomes the main spoken conversation language. Written (internal) communication is done in English 95% of the time.

RoMax · Post by **RoMax** » 15 Oct 2019, 21:49

DeltaWiskey wrote: ↑15 Oct 2019, 20:07 What a nonsense discussion. The principal language within the company is English, just like it is the most aviation companies. As required by law, labour agreements / contracts are made up in Dutch, French, English, German, etc. Most of the employees speak the 3 main languages quite fluently. As you would expect, there are departments where the majority of the employees are native Dutch or native French speaking, this then becomes the main spoken conversation language. Written (internal) communication is done in English 95% of the time.

What a bullsh** discussion for something which is indeed so simple.

Internal communication, company documents, training, etc, is normally always in English (personally I don't know examples otherwise, but maybe exceptions exist). The conversational language is in general 'decided by majority', but I know plenty of examples where 1 French speaking joining in a big Dutch-native group changes the whole conversation to French without any weird comment or bad look. In particular at b.house you also have people that aren't fluid in either Dutch or French (you have quite a variety of nationalities), hence the company policy to work in English (SN is the only LHG company where English is the standard business language). There are plenty of examples where French speakers never switch to Dutch, much more than the other way around. And who cares, you speak English, French, Dutch. If you work in an international company with hundreds of international staff (in Belgium and abroad) it's damn normal you have that flexibility and always at least English as a common business language.
You think SN is a 'Dutch dominated company' and that's a shame for the Belgian national airline? (what does that even mean, 'Belgian national airline' - I saw a recent article about the German ambassador in Ghana and he named SN in a list of 'major German companies' active in the country also including the likes of Siemens, Volkswagen, etc. - do Belgians fly SN because it's their national airline - does the federal government have any shares in SN - ...) I can give you plenty of companies in the BRU airport comunity that are much more dominantly Dutch.

Of course there are departments that are more 'isolated' when it comes to languages, but that goes both ways. And besises, as a Dutch native there are plenty of shops, bars/restaurants, etc. at the airport where they simply don't understand me when I talk in Dutch. And no that doesn't make me feel like I'm being discriminated...

And yes there's even SN crew that's hardly capable of having a normal conversation in Dutch (just like it's probably the case the other way around). And for the higher ranks of crew being anti-French or whatever, please give me a break... If there's one reason why the level of French is going down in the crew community, it's because the available candidates are dominantly Dutch speaking with a detoriating level of French (but what choice do you have, if suitable candidates with sufficient knowledge of all 3 languages are increasingly difficult to find). But besides English, French is by far the most used language in the pax community of SN, so to say the company is anti-French is just crazy.
I'll write it down every every time I face French native speakers that can't answer me in Dutch, with SN or other so called 'national companies' active in the Brussels region. Rest assured it'll be a long long list.

The only exception to all this is when it comes to legal/HR matters - and indeed in this situation it's the location of employment (b.house, Brussels Airport terminal, Technics South zone, etc.) that matters and they are on Flemish soil. SN is following the law. Yes some companies make exceptions on that, but nothing forces them to do so (unless union power through their Flemish counterparts...).

Post by **sn26567** » 15 Oct 2019, 23:08

Ansett wrote: ↑15 Oct 2019, 16:08 Well, Guys ! I think that on an aviation geeks site we have pretty well exhausted the point and time has come to turn the corner on it. Everybody will draw its own conclusions.

As Saratoga rightly pointed out in an earlier post : they must have more important issues to deal with at the moment.

Can we get back to (strictly) aviation ?

I could not have written better myself. Back to aviation now!

rwandan-flyer · Post by **rwandan-flyer** » 16 Oct 2019, 21:19

Re: Brussels Airlines in 2019

Post by sn26567 » 07 Oct 2019, 20:41

rwandan-flyer wrote: ↑
07 Oct 2019, 19:29
Brussels Airlines: the divorce with Eurowings is not yet registered

Three months after announcing its separation from Lufthansa's low-cost subsidiary, the Belgian airline is still part of the Eurowings group, pending a strategic plan.

https://translate.google.com/translate? ... ncore-acte

The article is behind a paywall!But indeed there are many signs that Brussels Airlines is far from having regained its independence from Eurowings: no monthly statistics, no mention of the airline in the LH press releases, etc.

Seen this morning, at Paris Cdg, OO-SNN (Bru-Cdg-Bru), but no operated by Brussels Airlines on the fuselage. I don't know, if it was still the case on this aircraft

CTBke · Post by **CTBke** » 17 Oct 2019, 15:19

It never was the case ... it arrived at SN like this.. only the belgian registration gives it away.

brusselsairlinesfan · Post by **brusselsairlinesfan** » 17 Oct 2019, 23:18

rwandan-flyer wrote: ↑16 Oct 2019, 21:19
Re: Brussels Airlines in 2019

Post by sn26567 » 07 Oct 2019, 20:41

rwandan-flyer wrote: ↑
07 Oct 2019, 19:29
Brussels Airlines: the divorce with Eurowings is not yet registered

Three months after announcing its separation from Lufthansa's low-cost subsidiary, the Belgian airline is still part of the Eurowings group, pending a strategic plan.

https://translate.google.com/translate? ... ncore-acte

The article is behind a paywall!But indeed there are many signs that Brussels Airlines is far from having regained its independence from Eurowings: no monthly statistics, no mention of the airline in the LH press releases, etc.

Seen this morning, at Paris Cdg, OO-SNN (Bru-Cdg-Bru), but no operated by Brussels Airlines on the fuselage. I don't know, if it was still the case on this aircraft

Is this plane still needed within the SN fleet after the demise of Thomas Cook ?

RoMax · Post by **RoMax** » 18 Oct 2019, 00:03

Besides being the most recent A320 to join SN's fleet, OO-SNN is also effectively the youngest A320 in the fleet (9 years younger than OO-SNA) and owned by LHG contrary to most others in SN's A32F fleet. Two factors which are quite certainly more important than the livery... In case SN has an excess of A32F aircraft, it doesn't make any sense at all to sent this one away just because of the livery.

This is really not a priority for SN now. The few passengers that will be confused "are we flying Eurowings?!" discover soon enough that it's normal SN staff, normal SN product, etc. on board.

brusselsairlinesfan · Post by **brusselsairlinesfan** » 18 Oct 2019, 07:32

RoMax wrote: ↑18 Oct 2019, 00:03 Besides being the most recent A320 to join SN's fleet, OO-SNN is also effectively the youngest A320 in the fleet (9 years younger than OO-SNA) and owned by LHG contrary to most others in SN's A32F fleet. Two factors which are quite certainly more important than the livery... In case SN has an excess of A32F aircraft, it doesn't make any sense at all to sent this one away just because of the livery.

This is really not a priority for SN now. The few passengers that will be confused "are we flying Eurowings?!" discover soon enough that it's normal SN staff, normal SN product, etc. on board.

I do 100% agree... seems so logical. But I was also thinking in terms of overcapacity.

Stij · Post by **Stij** » 23 Oct 2019, 14:41

According to Flemish Newspaper "De Standaard", Brussels Airlines should become a smaller but more profitable company. However, no employees are to be fired. More news to follow...
https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf2019102 ... 7732535605

Post by **sn26567** » 23 Oct 2019, 16:08

Stij wrote: ↑23 Oct 2019, 14:41 According to Flemish Newspaper "De Standaard", Brussels Airlines should become a smaller but more profitable company. However, no employees are to be fired. More news to follow...
https://www.standaard.be/cnt/dmf2019102 ... 7732535605

The whole Belgian press writes about it. Also Aviation24.be:

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/luft ... crap-jobs/

SLM · Post by **SLM** » 23 Oct 2019, 17:12

L'histoire se répète?

VoloperTe · Post by **VoloperTe** » 23 Oct 2019, 17:42

I'm really sad, i feel like living the dark years of Sabena !! Cuts in the fleet ? I think yes, they are too many and old A319 and A320... in the future LH has interest to acquire smaller aircrafts (A220) for Brussels Airlines, remove all A319 and CRJ900, and keep maybe A320 fleet with newer A320/A321neo.
For widebodies aircraft, A330 fleet is perfect (why not A330-900) and A321LR...