SN flies daily to Paris again

[tolipanebas]

vr 25/03/05 - SN Brussels Airlines vliegt vanaf 1 mei opnieuw elke dag naar Parijs. Dat schrijft De Tijd. De samenwerking met Thalys wordt stopgezet.

Anderhalf jaar geleden sloot SN een akkoord met Thalys, waardoor de passagiers met de trein van Brussel naar Parijs konden in plaats van met het vliegtuig. De vlucht tussen Parijs en Brussel werd toen geschrapt. Daarmee werd Parijs, op Luxemburg na, de enige West-Europese hoofdstad die niet meer via de lucht verbonden was met Brussel.

Nu herroept SN die beslissing. Het vliegtuig blijkt in de praktijk goedkoper en er waren ook praktische problemen. Passagiers klaagden over lange wachttijden en gesleur met bagage. Afrikapassagiers die 's ochtends aankomen in Zaventem moeten bijna drie uur wachten op de trein naar Parijs, terwijl het luchthavenstation niet over een degelijke wachtruimte beschikt.

SN doet voor de vluchten een beroep op de Franse maatschappij Axis Airways. 8O

Wonder what the unions are going to say about outsourcing of flights at SN????

[sn26567]

Dat schrijft De Tijd.

En dat schreef Luchtzak reeds op 22/03/2005: https://www.aviation24.be/article8106.html

[Avro]

SN doet voor de vluchten een beroep op de Franse maatschappij Axis Airways.

Why not !!

As far as I know the CDG flight was always a loss making one and in addition to that SN had to do 2 ferry flight each day since the plane wasn't based in Paris. This ment even bigger losses and therefore SN tried the train link.

Now SN realized that they need an airlink between both cities if they want to attract more passengers which will transfer on their African flights. By making a contract with a french company with planes based in CDG (i.e. Axis) they will be able to reduce the costs of the flights.

In my opinion it's a smart of SN.

Chris

[tolipanebas]

Sure, for the airline it is a smart move, but the fact remains SN is outsourcing flights to others, something less positive for the crews at SN.
This time it is only a trainlink which is replaced by an outsourced airlink, but what's next? Scrap a few SN nightstops and let those (morning) flights from outstation be operated by other cheaper airlines too? I am sure there are quite a few SN destinations where profitability could be increased if they have them operated by smaller material from locally based airlines without need for a nightstop. I thought the management made a vow to have all SN flights operated by SN crew at the moment of the Birdy integration? How does this fit into their promise?

[Sabena_690]

Wonder what the unions are going to say about outsourcing of flights at SN????

It's the job of the unions to bitch about just everything.

The fact that those flights are outsourced is perfectly acceptable, unless you find it logic that SN have to operate empty positioning flights for only 1 daily frequency.

[sab319]

I think SN found a good solution, but in my opnion the Thalys one woudl have been better if things where better organised...

[tolipanebas]

The fact that those flights are outsourced is perfectly acceptable

We shall remind you to this statement, the day SN announces that much expected expansion to Africa.... on a wet-leased airbus A310 or B747.... will it still be perfectly acceptable to you then? Heck, while doing so, they might even get rid of those 3 odd A330s then and just outsource the whole long haul operations to some icelandic company, don't they?

Come on, I thought you were always insisting SN should build a stong big company, not play some ticketing office operating a few of its flights itself....

[regi]

this is the way to do it: compete with the big guys on their own turf.
People repeat general messages by saying "look at the map, Brussels is surrounded by big airports, there is no more future for Brussels (Zaventem)"
My answer is: take a map, draw lines between Londen, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam, and what is in the middle? Brussels. So, relaunch Brussels as a major airport, and connect by regional flights to the major airports. You will hear screams around Belgium.
Don't go by the flow, do your own thing. Be Richard Branson. Act out of a gut feeling. And work hard.
Succes SNBA.

[sn-remember]

Be Richard Branson. Act out of a gut feeling. And work hard.
Succes SNBA.

Well said regi ! I can't agree more !

[Sabena_690]

Come on, I thought you were always insisting SN should build a stong big company, not play some ticketing office operating a few of its flights itself....

Outsourcing all longhaul operations isn't the same as outsourcing one single daily flight.

To be honest, I'm basically against the outsourcing of SN flights. But in this case, there are enough grounds to do so.

When SN were still operating those CDG flights, an aircraft had to stay on the ground in CDG all day. Now that Axis Airways will operate those flights, only a CDG-BRU-CDG flight will be necessary. Why not use the ARJ you would use for this service on a more interesting morning flight?

Although I'm, just like you, against outsourcing, it can be handy from time to time if you want to avoid risks. Let's see 'Birdy' (when they were still operating the A333's) as some kind of outsourcing too: SN was able to fly to Africa without too much risks. Now, a few years after the set-up of Birdy, SN have acquired those A333's.

Imagine that SN expand their longhaul activities again: they can outsource those activities in the beginning, and when it becomes clear that the operation is a success, they just start operating those flights themselves.

SN are not in the position to take huge financial risks I'm afraid...

BTW: out of curiosity, what do you find of the huge number of codeshares SN have? You may always contact me through PM/e-mail as this is an interesting subject, and because the opinion of a staff-member of SN is always nice.