Brussels Airlines in 2023

[longwings]

What a lack of ambition from SN and/or LH.
BRU and SN could easily take away market-share and PAX from AMS and CDG.

And how would they accomplish that easily?
Leisure travelers are first and foremost price sensitive.
Business travelers focus on frequencies, preferably daily if not more often than that.

So which segment can BRU compete against easily?

[Conti764]

What a lack of ambition from SN and/or LH.
BRU and SN could easily take away market-share and PAX from AMS and CDG.

And how would they accomplish that easily?
Leisure travelers are first and foremost price sensitive.
Business travelers focus on frequencies, preferably daily if not more often than that.

So which segment can BRU compete against easily?

O/D to overseas territories on which AF/KL now have a (near)monopoly?

[crew1990]

What a lack of ambition from SN and/or LH.
BRU and SN could easily take away market-share and PAX from AMS and CDG.

And how would they accomplish that easily?
Leisure travelers are first and foremost price sensitive.
Business travelers focus on frequencies, preferably daily if not more often than that.

So which segment can BRU compete against easily?

O/D to overseas territories on which AF/KL now have a (near)monopoly?

For long haul the plan is cristal clear, the focus is on Africa with connecting pax from Europe with SN metal and North America with SN metal for JFK and the rest with United and Air Canada.

[nordikcam]

What a lack of ambition from SN and/or LH.
BRU and SN could easily take away market-share and PAX from AMS and CDG.

And how would they accomplish that easily?
Leisure travelers are first and foremost price sensitive.
Business travelers focus on frequencies, preferably daily if not more often than that.

So which segment can BRU compete against easily?

O/D to overseas territories on which AF/KL now have a (near)monopoly?

The Air Belgium experience in Pointe à Pitre, Fort de France or Curaçao was hardly conclusive...

[oldblueeyes]

What a lack of ambition from SN and/or LH.
BRU and SN could easily take away market-share and PAX from AMS and CDG.

And how would they accomplish that easily?
Leisure travelers are first and foremost price sensitive.
Business travelers focus on frequencies, preferably daily if not more often than that.

So which segment can BRU compete against easily?

O/D to overseas territories on which AF/KL now have a (near)monopoly?

So which are those territories not served by the LH Group where the Group feeding structure makes sense?

You have to look from an entire group prospective, similarly to the group protecting SN's niche markets not to be cannibalized by other brands (yet).

So, what is:
- not served by the LH group directly or part of a venture
- makes sense from pax routing
- promises a decent yield
- and can be switched under economically attractive conditions from AF-KLM?

[crew1990]

To be honnest, I think that a brussels airlines story would be very different from the air belgium one as it would not be limited to point 2 point but the routes could as well benefits from the extensive network of SN in France and other station. I do think that SN could be profitable on those route with the right partner Club Med; MSC cruises etc. BUT SN can be much more profitable on Africa.

There are many opportunities but ressources are not unlimited. When SN has 1€ to invest the trick is to see where this 1€ can make the most of profit and the answer is not Pointe à Pitre or Fort de France that's a fact.

[Atlantis]

And how would they accomplish that easily?
Leisure travelers are first and foremost price sensitive.
Business travelers focus on frequencies, preferably daily if not more often than that.

So which segment can BRU compete against easily?

O/D to overseas territories on which AF/KL now have a (near)monopoly?

For long haul the plan is cristal clear, the focus is on Africa with connecting pax from Europe with SN metal and North America with SN metal for JFK and the rest with United and Air Canada.

Africa is the main focus indeed with a few more new destinations in the pipeline there for the next few years.

In North America you forgot also Washington on own SN metal.
Air Canada did their job already by connecting Toronto and Montreal with BRU. There was a wish of Vancouver but that will not be. So, Canada is already served.

Keeps you only with United but there is not too much news regarding new destinations.

[crew1990]

O/D to overseas territories on which AF/KL now have a (near)monopoly?

For long haul the plan is cristal clear, the focus is on Africa with connecting pax from Europe with SN metal and North America with SN metal for JFK and the rest with United and Air Canada.

Africa is the main focus indeed with a few more new destinations in the pipeline there for the next few years.

In North America you forgot also Washington on own SN metal.
Air Canada did their job already by connecting Toronto and Montreal with BRU. There was a wish of Vancouver but that will not be. So, Canada is already served.

Keeps you only with United but there is not too much news regarding new destinations.

I did not forgot to mention IAD, I actually did not mention it on purpose as I fear United could/will take over totally the route in order to free up 1 A330 for Africa. This part is less cristal clear and more into the grey zone. From a personnal point of you, I hope not, from a rational point of view this is probably what should/will happend.

[JOVAN2]

So, let us be happy with the X-mas decoration at BRU. And the exotic non-business destinations in sub,-saharan Africa.....

Lets not look for opportunies in Asia, India
USA.
Lets not use the unique location of the airport andthe catchment area of 2million.people.

Petit pays. ...

[crew1990]

As an aviation enthousiast I share this frustration, but once again, Brussels Airlines is a privately own company, the only and sole objectif is to please the shareholder, not us.

[Atlantis]

So, let us be happy with the X-mas decoration at BRU. And the exotic non-business destinations in sub,-saharan Africa.....

Lets not look for opportunies in Asia, India
USA.
Lets not use the unique location of the airport andthe catchment area of 2million.people.

Petit pays. ...

But why you always blame the airport or the users of it? In first place it's the government who decide this. There need to be first an agreement between certain countries. Like e.g. Asia or India. As long as a government is not giving any permission, forget it.

And many of them starts also after a trade mission but it takes a lot of time. Many wishes from the airport but the government has to give approval first.

[Atlantis]

For long haul the plan is cristal clear, the focus is on Africa with connecting pax from Europe with SN metal and North America with SN metal for JFK and the rest with United and Air Canada.

Africa is the main focus indeed with a few more new destinations in the pipeline there for the next few years.

In North America you forgot also Washington on own SN metal.
Air Canada did their job already by connecting Toronto and Montreal with BRU. There was a wish of Vancouver but that will not be. So, Canada is already served.

Keeps you only with United but there is not too much news regarding new destinations.

I did not forgot to mention IAD, I actually did not mention it on purpose as I fear United could/will take over totally the route in order to free up 1 A330 for Africa. This part is less cristal clear and more into the grey zone. From a personnal point of you, I hope not, from a rational point of view this is probably what should/will happend.

Thanks for the explanation. If UA would like to take over fully this route, could it be that we will see them also double daily on this one? UA is already flying with big metal on this route even as SN. If one of them is leaving it means that double daily could be for UA.

[Conti764]

And how would they accomplish that easily?
Leisure travelers are first and foremost price sensitive.
Business travelers focus on frequencies, preferably daily if not more often than that.

So which segment can BRU compete against easily?

O/D to overseas territories on which AF/KL now have a (near)monopoly?

So which are those territories not served by the LH Group where the Group feeding structure makes sense?

You have to look from an entire group prospective, similarly to the group protecting SN's niche markets not to be cannibalized by other brands (yet).

So, what is:
- not served by the LH group directly or part of a venture
- makes sense from pax routing
- promises a decent yield
- and can be switched under economically attractive conditions from AF-KLM?

For the Dutch side Paramaribo comes in mind, Sint-Maarten, Curacao, Aruba,... Mostly, KLM has a near monopoly on those routes, probably resulting in high yields.
SN could tap into those markets by undercutting KL's rates and still make a profit. All those destinatiins have large communities in the Netherlands, it seems only logical they'd consider flying SN for the right price.

[oldblueeyes]

Well, this exactly the trap between perception at local level and market reality.

For a Netherlands prospective this is a home territory + leisure destination, for all the rest of Europe the A,B,C s are pure leisure.

For leisure purposes the group has already Edelweiss and Discover, both linked to the fairly large networks of their mainline hubs, which SN can not offer.

Even KLM is flying these destinations partially as island hopping pairing them in order to get critical mass.

All companies work based on available data that can be purchased and they know the number of O&D pax on each route - their main objective is to generate profits and they would focus on the spots where this is likely to be generated based on hard data not on perception.

[nordikcam]

Thanks for the explanation. If UA would like to take over fully this route, could it be that we will see them also double daily on this one? UA is already flying with big metal on this route even as SN. If one of them is leaving it means that double daily could be for UA.

If the focus is on Africa and there could be an additional plane, what would be the two potential “new” destinations? Bamako despite recurring instability? Libreville? Brazaville? Lagos? Kano like in the good old days? Lubumbashi directly ?

[DannyVDB]

Over the past years they also evolved towards more direct flights (instead of triangle flights). Maybe they want to do that even more if they have an additional plane?

But I guess some of the additional destinations will be rather European since the new A330 is already 'claimed' for starting Nairobi and the 11th plane would be rather a 'reserve' plane if I understood correctly. So not sure whether more direct flight are possible at all ...

Regards,
Danny

[JOVAN2]

Over the past years they also evolved towards more direct flights (instead of triangle flights). Maybe they want to do that even more if they have an additional plane?

But I guess some of the additional destinations will be rather European since the new A330 is already 'claimed' for starting Nairobi and the 11th plane would be rather a 'reserve' plane if I understood correctly. So not sure whether more direct flight are possible at all ...

Regards,
Danny

Well, I understood Nairobi Nairobi will be a stop en route to Kigali. In practice it light be another triangular flight .

[fcw]

For the Dutch side Paramaribo comes in mind, Sint-Maarten, Curacao, Aruba,... Mostly, KLM has a near monopoly on those routes, probably resulting in high yields.
SN could tap into those markets by undercutting KL's rates and still make a profit. All those destinatiins have large communities in the Netherlands, it seems only logical they'd consider flying SN for the right price.

Fares from BRU with KLM are quite reasonable, undercutting them will make the route unprofitable and KLM will fight to maintain their market share and lower their prices even more. It’s easier to fly full planes with a small loss per seat, to defend existing routes, than fly half empty planes at rock bottom prices in order to attract new customers.

[crew1990]

Nairobi will be "sec" some days of the week and via Kigali the other days. At the moment for Africa there are direct fly both direction on some day of the week for Nairobi, Kinshasa and Dakar during winter.

The plan for the moment is to grow at a one a330 per year rate.

Number 11th is plan for end 2023 begin 2024 but will not be a "spare" aircraft

[oldblueeyes]

And what is the current projection of roll over from 319 to 320 NEO? Or is there a mix with newer 320CEO's planned?
Around 2030 the current A320 fleet would start to be due for replacement.

Any B737 MAX rumors?