Brussels Airlines in 2025

[DannyVDB]

Brussels Airlines in 2017
Brussels Airlines in 2018
Brussels Airlines in 2019
Brussels Airlines in 2020
Brussels Airlines in 2021
Brussels Airlines in 2022
Brussels Airlines in 2023
Brussels Airlines in 2024


Dear all,

[I don't think there is already a topic on Brussels Airlines 2025. If so, please feel free to merge this one into it]

I was reading with interest the article on this site and the communication by SN on short/medium haul next year.

Certain things were already known such as the 11th A333, the Air Baltic planes coming in, Madeira added, etc.

However, certain things came as a surprise to me. I was already wondering where all the capacity would be used for.

- More Africa, logic
- More frequencies to sunny destinations (ES, PT, GR), logic
- Re-establish Birmingham in summer, logic

Less logic to me, and some of it not expected:
- Overall capacity for S/M haul will go up 18% (!), that's quite a lot. Will SN go above the 10 million pax again?
- Shift of all FRA, MUC, ZRH, GVA flights to SN, wow . Why would that be? Because of plane shortages at LH, LX? Is it temporary or 'permanent? Is it not making LH/LX vulnerable (e.g. in case of strikes at SN, these cities would not be connected anymore to BRU)?

Certain things were not mentioned, like a third flight to Paris, ...

Cheers,
Danny

[DannyVDB]

Forgot: it would also mean we won't see LH and LX planes anymore at BRU, no?
D

[Boeing767copilot]

I think most LH and LX flights to and from BRU will be operated by AirBaltic aircraft, the A220s.

[OO-PDM]

Forgot: it would also mean we won't see LH and LX planes anymore at BRU, no?
D

From Aerotelegraph: SN wil take MOST daily flights to and from FRA and MUC, so LH will still be in BRU. For LX the article is too vague.

https://www.aerotelegraph.com/lufthansa ... irlines-ab

[oldblueeyes]

- Shift of all FRA, MUC, ZRH, GVA flights to SN, wow . Why would that be? Because of plane shortages at LH, LX? Is it temporary or 'permanent? Is it not making LH/LX vulnerable (e.g. in case of strikes at SN, these cities would not be connected anymore to BRU)?

Pretty simple .. cost.
The same exercise was done with the flights to Vienna, operated in majority by Austrian. Even 2 planes were deliberately transferred some years ago to them.
Few factors here:
- economically it makes sense to have the cost efficient partner operating it, there were no marginal cost eg overnight occurs
- LH would get more long haul aircraft (currently adding eg A359 net) - and these aircraft have a different crey factor per unit - as in the mainline tariff LH has no intention for new hires, each new long haul aircraft gives 1+x (depending if we count cockpit or cabin) short haul aircraft "free"
- overall LH as an operating brand would undergo a cost reduction program, thus any incremental savings would be taken to bring back economics to where they should be

[nordikcam]

Forgot: it would also mean we won't see LH and LX planes anymore at BRU, no?
D

From Aerotelegraph: SN wil take MOST daily flights to and from FRA and MUC, so LH will still be in BRU. For LX the article is too vague.

https://www.aerotelegraph.com/lufthansa ... irlines-ab

Apparently all flights except one daily will be operated by SN A319s on FRA and MUC...and 1 with LH metal ! I do not know about LX...

[sn26567]

For FRA and MUC, the idea is to avoid crew overnighting abroad, hence the last flight of the day should be operated by the operator of the destination of the flight. The ultimate reason is obviously cost.

[DannyVDB]

For FRA and MUC, the idea is to avoid crew overnighting abroad, hence the last flight of the day should be operated by the operator of the destination of the flight. The ultimate reason is obviously cost.

Correct, but that was already the case. I think the reason is mainly they have a shortage of the short/medium aircraft too (?). I see 10 planes Long-Term Parking for LH alone, 9 for LX.

Danny

[oldblueeyes]

If you look on EAF you should see the whole picture. And there is enough growth on various brands:
- Edelweiss is geting this Winter 2 used A320/ 1 from LH and next year 3 new A320
- Swiss itself is getting 4 A320 to replace their aging fleet and transfers

- LH City would get 9 New A320 in 2025,
- Discover shall receive 3 used 320 from LH

So there are short term enough net intakes, but distributed over various subbrands.

[luchtzak]

Brussels Airlines is set to make history in the summer of 2025 with its most extensive long-haul network to date, offering unprecedented capacity to sub-Saharan Africa. With the addition of an 11th long-haul aircraft, the Belgian carrier will deliver a 10% increase in flights to the region compared to the previous summer, operating 56 weekly connections.

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/luft ... an-africa/

[sn26567]

Brussels Airlines is set to make history in the summer of 2025 with its most extensive long-haul network to date, offering unprecedented capacity to sub-Saharan Africa. With the addition of an 11th long-haul aircraft, the Belgian carrier will deliver a 10% increase in flights to the region compared to the previous summer, operating 56 weekly connections.

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/luft ... an-africa/

I see a dangerous trend here: Brussels Airlines abandons Luanda in favour of Lufthansa, which will operate the destination thrice weekly from Frankfurt. SN passengers booked to Luanda will now be rebooked on LH, with a change of plane in FRA. Which next African destination will follow?

[Lux_avi]

Brussels Airlines is set to make history in the summer of 2025 with its most extensive long-haul network to date, offering unprecedented capacity to sub-Saharan Africa. With the addition of an 11th long-haul aircraft, the Belgian carrier will deliver a 10% increase in flights to the region compared to the previous summer, operating 56 weekly connections.

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/luft ... an-africa/

I see a dangerous trend here: Brussels Airlines abandons Luanda in favour of Lufthansa, which will operate the destination thrice weekly from Frankfurt. SN passengers booked to Luanda will now be rebooked on LH, with a change of plane in FRA. Which next African destination will follow?

You see a dangerous trend while Brussels Airlines announces a 10% increase in flights to the region & the addition of an 11th long-haul aircraft in its fleet?

[JOVAN2]

Brussels Airlines is set to make history in the summer of 2025 with its most extensive long-haul network to date, offering unprecedented capacity to sub-Saharan Africa. With the addition of an 11th long-haul aircraft, the Belgian carrier will deliver a 10% increase in flights to the region compared to the previous summer, operating 56 weekly connections.

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/luft ... an-africa/

I see a dangerous trend here: Brussels Airlines abandons Luanda in favour of Lufthansa, which will operate the destination thrice weekly from Frankfurt. SN passengers booked to Luanda will now be rebooked on LH, with a change of plane in FRA. Which next African destination will follow?

Indeed. When LH group announces something 'historic' you can smell something tricky. Certainly for SN.
Angola is a rich country, full of natural resources, with a big part of corruption of course. But its future looks brighter than DR Congo.
So time for LH to steal it 'back', and make some nice announcement in which they call SN the Africa specialist.

[Atlantis]

Brussels Airlines is set to make history in the summer of 2025 with its most extensive long-haul network to date, offering unprecedented capacity to sub-Saharan Africa. With the addition of an 11th long-haul aircraft, the Belgian carrier will deliver a 10% increase in flights to the region compared to the previous summer, operating 56 weekly connections.

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/luft ... an-africa/

I see a dangerous trend here: Brussels Airlines abandons Luanda in favour of Lufthansa, which will operate the destination thrice weekly from Frankfurt. SN passengers booked to Luanda will now be rebooked on LH, with a change of plane in FRA. Which next African destination will follow?

Did you forgot that LH transferred Nairobi to Brussels Airlines? And that Nairobi is one of the best performing destinations for SN as well as profit as frequencies?

[nordikcam]

And Accra was new too. Some told me they were only 60 passengers more or less on each Luanda flight...Is it right ?

[lumumba]

And Accra was new too. Some told me they were only 60 passengers more or less on each Luanda flight...Is it right ?

That's right but because they never try to improve it,in the 90s they had a good market share in Luanda.
It's a pity I will fly TAP know on there day flight on Sunday instead of Brussels Airlines.
But at least it's still M&M.

[rwandan-flyer]

Brussels Airlines is set to make history in the summer of 2025 with its most extensive long-haul network to date, offering unprecedented capacity to sub-Saharan Africa. With the addition of an 11th long-haul aircraft, the Belgian carrier will deliver a 10% increase in flights to the region compared to the previous summer, operating 56 weekly connections.

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/luft ... an-africa/

I see a dangerous trend here: Brussels Airlines abandons Luanda in favour of Lufthansa, which will operate the destination thrice weekly from Frankfurt. SN passengers booked to Luanda will now be rebooked on LH, with a change of plane in FRA. Which next African destination will follow?

Indeed. When LH group announces something 'historic' you can smell something tricky. Certainly for SN.
Angola is a rich country, full of natural resources, with a big part of corruption of course. But its future looks brighter than DR Congo.
So time for LH to steal it 'back', and make some nice announcement in which they call SN the Africa specialist.

Sabena era is gone. Competition to Africa is very stiff. It's not like in 90s. Turkish Airlines, Qatar Airways and Ethiopian have "unlimited" capacites to spread theirs wings into Africa.

Turkish Airlines can serve some Africans markets daily where Air France provides between 1 and 4 flights a week !! Djibouti, N’Djamena and Nouakchott.

Qatar Airways has a big part of their destination with a daily flights and sometimes a double daily flights (Entebbe in the peak period and Nairobi all the year)

Ethiopian Airlines now serves many Africans destinations with 2 or 3 flights a day.Those flights perfect match with their Istanbul and Athens services. IST and ATH are now operated during the daylight and not only a night flight. From ATH with Agean and IST with Turkish Airlines you can reach many destinations in Europe.

Air France KLM have attempted to bring more capacities by serving some new markets or by providing non stop flights to a same destination from their hubs. They have a little bit failed, because most of their routes that they have opened in 2010s and early 2020s are closed

You will suprise the number of routes that KLM and Air France have closed since 2014. Most of them have lasted 1-2 years !!!

KLM : Monrovia, Mauritius, Harare, Lusaka, Luanda, Windhoek, Addis Ababa (open before 2010s), Khartoum (open before 2010s) Abuja (open before 2010s), Kano (open before the 2010s), Mombasa, Zanzibar.

Air France : Monrovia (stil served by Brussels Airlines), Freetown (still served by Brussels Airlines), Banjul (still served Brussels Airlines), Seychelles, Dar Es Salaam, Accra (still served by Brussels Airlines), Port Harcourt (open before the 2010s)

And Brussels Airlines how many routes closed in last 10 years ? Bamako if i m right. Conakry, Luanda and Ougadoudou were suspended only during the darkest periods of the covid. They have resumed Nairobi.

I won't talk about British Airways, they doens't care about Africa. Only Zambia and Zimbabwe try to bring back British Airways. Tanzania, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Liberia didn't try. Can you imagine if tomorrow Brussels Airlines decides to close routes to Rwanda, DR Congo and Burundi. Biritsh Airways did the same thing with these countries in 2010s : Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia,...

It's an almost an exploit to see Brussels Airlines with a such network in Africa, while the Brussels HUB is smaller than Amsterdam and Brussels

Ex: the point to point demand in 2023 between East Africa Brussels Airlines destinations and Washington (average 200 pax per day). I can understand why UA sends sometimes the B777-300ER. Of course we hhave to add demand with Central and West Africa.

Nairobi : 46 273 pax (almost the same numbers that....Brussels IAD )
Entebbe : 17 120 pax (almost the same numbers that....Brussels Colombo or Brussels Orlando )
Kigali : 9 856 pax (almost the same numbers that....Brussels Buenos Aires or Brussels Hanoi

And about Nairobi if you have people connecting to or from Minneapolis with United via Washington. Jackpot : point to point market MSP NBO in 2023 : 54 716 pax (average 149 pax per day).

Some people were wondering why Air Canada sends some its B777-300ER to Brussels from Montreal. The answer is probably partly with these data. About Montreal, here are the point to point markets over 10 000 pax per year (average 376 pax per day) (Brussels Airlines destinations in Africa)

Dakar (26 630 pax)
Abidjan (24 137 pax)
Douala (21 257 pax)
Kinshasa (17 727 pax)
Yaounde (13 802 pax)
Nairobi ( 12 483 pax)
Kigali (11 417 pax)
Accra (10 126 pax)

Of course we have to add competition from others airlines, but the demand is there.

[lumumba]

I see a dangerous trend here: Brussels Airlines abandons Luanda in favour of Lufthansa, which will operate the destination thrice weekly from Frankfurt. SN passengers booked to Luanda will now be rebooked on LH, with a change of plane in FRA. Which next African destination will follow?

Indeed. When LH group announces something 'historic' you can smell something tricky. Certainly for SN.
Angola is a rich country, full of natural resources, with a big part of corruption of course. But its future looks brighter than DR Congo.
So time for LH to steal it 'back', and make some nice announcement in which they call SN the Africa specialist.

Sabena era is gone. Competition to Africa is very stiff. It's not like in 90s. Turkish Airlines, Qatar Airways and Ethiopian have "unlimited" capacites to spread theirs wings into Africa.

Turkish Airlines can serve some Africans markets daily where Air France provides between 1 and 4 flights a week !! Djibouti, N’Djamena and Nouakchott.

Qatar Airways has a big part of their destination with a daily flights and sometimes a double daily flights (Entebbe in the peak period and Nairobi all the year)

Ethiopian Airlines now serves many Africans destinations with 2 or 3 flights a day.Those flights perfect match with their Istanbul and Athens services. IST and ATH are now operated during the daylight and not only a night flight. From ATH with Agean and IST with Turkish Airlines you can reach many destinations in Europe.

Air France KLM have attempted to bring more capacities by serving some new markets or by providing non stop flights to a same destination from their hubs. They have a little bit failed, because most of their routes that they have opened in 2010s and early 2020s are closed

You will suprise the number of routes that KLM and Air France have closed since 2014. Most of them have lasted 1-2 years !!!

KLM : Monrovia, Mauritius, Harare, Lusaka, Luanda, Windhoek, Addis Ababa (open before 2010s), Khartoum (open before 2010s) Abuja (open before 2010s), Kano (open before the 2010s), Mombasa, Zanzibar.

Air France : Monrovia (stil served by Brussels Airlines), Freetown (still served by Brussels Airlines), Banjul (still served Brussels Airlines), Seychelles, Dar Es Salaam, Accra (still served by Brussels Airlines), Port Harcourt (open before the 2010s)

And Brussels Airlines how many routes closed in last 10 years ? Bamako if i m right. Conakry, Luanda and Ougadoudou were suspended only during the darkest periods of the covid. They have resumed Nairobi.

I won't talk about British Airways, they doens't care about Africa. Only Zambia and Zimbabwe try to bring back British Airways. Tanzania, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Liberia didn't try. Can you imagine if tomorrow Brussels Airlines decides to close routes to Rwanda, DR Congo and Burundi. Biritsh Airways did the same thing with these countries in 2010s : Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia,...

It's an almost an exploit to see Brussels Airlines with a such network in Africa, while the Brussels HUB is smaller than Amsterdam and Brussels

Ex: the point to point demand in 2023 between East Africa Brussels Airlines destinations and Washington (average 200 pax per day). I can understand why UA sends sometimes the B777-300ER. Of course we hhave to add demand with Central and West Africa.

Nairobi : 46 273 pax (almost the same numbers that....Brussels IAD )
Entebbe : 17 120 pax (almost the same numbers that....Brussels Colombo or Brussels Orlando )
Kigali : 9 856 pax (almost the same numbers that....Brussels Buenos Aires or Brussels Hanoi

And about Nairobi if you have people connecting to or from Minneapolis with United via Washington. Jackpot : point to point market MSP NBO in 2023 : 54 716 pax (average 149 pax per day).

Some people were wondering why Air Canada sends some its B777-300ER to Brussels from Montreal. The answer is probably partly with these data. About Montreal, here are the point to point markets over 10 000 pax per year (average 376 pax per day) (Brussels Airlines destinations in Africa)

Dakar (26 630 pax)
Abidjan (24 137 pax)
Douala (21 257 pax)
Kinshasa (17 727 pax)
Yaounde (13 802 pax)
Nairobi ( 12 483 pax)
Kigali (11 417 pax)
Accra (10 126 pax)

Of course we have to add competition from others airlines, but the demand is there.

Anyway thx for this information I do understand the logic about Luanda but it's a pity because SABENA was there first (besides TAP).

[sn26567]

Dropping Luanda enables Brussels Airlines to serve Kinshasa nonstop seven days a week (instead of five). Since Kinshasa is their main moneymaker in Africa (and probably the world) while Luanda is a loss-making destination, they put their efforts where they can earn profits.

[EBKT]

I assume to make Luanda profitable you preferably have feeder connections with Brazil which Lufthansa does have in Frankfurt.