Brussels Airlines in 2025

[Atlantis]

This A330 fleet is a disaster today again Abidjan!

Unbelievable! How long is LH Group going to let SN struggle with their unreliable old A330 fleet? Until all customers have gone?

I'm flying to JFK in May and have deliberately avoided booking with SN as I don't want a 50% chance to have my flight cancelled.

LOL do you know what is the age of a certain part of the LH fleet of LH, LX and OS??? Much, much older. Some of them are 27 years old planes. Compared to them, it's still young.

[nordikcam]

This A330 fleet is a disaster today again Abidjan!

Unbelievable! How long is LH Group going to let SN struggle with their unreliable old A330 fleet? Until all customers have gone?

I'm flying to JFK in May and have deliberately avoided booking with SN as I don't want a 50% chance to have my flight cancelled.

LOL do you know what is the age of a certain part of the LH fleet of LH, LX and OS??? Much, much older. Some of them are 27 years old planes. Compared to them, it's still young.

Aged or not...the long haul fleet of SN is absolutely not working. A pity. So it is.

[Boavida]

This A330 fleet is a disaster today again Abidjan!

Unbelievable! How long is LH Group going to let SN struggle with their unreliable old A330 fleet? Until all customers have gone?

I'm flying to JFK in May and have deliberately avoided booking with SN as I don't want a 50% chance to have my flight cancelled.

LOL do you know what is the age of a certain part of the LH fleet of LH, LX and OS??? Much, much older. Some of them are 27 years old planes. Compared to them, it's still young.

Maybe these other airlines have larger long haul fleets (with also more modern, younger planes), making it easier to find solutions/replacements if a old plane breaks down.

SN has a small and old long haul fleet. If one plane breaks down (lately every 2, 3 days!!) it has a huge impact and there is no possibility of finding a quick solution or replacement. Result: a cancelled flight, unhappy pax and reputation damage.

So the cancellation of today is SN229 to ABJ (OO-SFP).

What A330 flight will be cancelled tomorrow? The bets are open!

[Atlantis]

Unbelievable! How long is LH Group going to let SN struggle with their unreliable old A330 fleet? Until all customers have gone?

I'm flying to JFK in May and have deliberately avoided booking with SN as I don't want a 50% chance to have my flight cancelled.

LOL do you know what is the age of a certain part of the LH fleet of LH, LX and OS??? Much, much older. Some of them are 27 years old planes. Compared to them, it's still young.

Aged or not...the long haul fleet of SN is absolutely not working. A pity. So it is.

It's much more visible bcs they have only 10 LH planes whereas 2 are in maintenance. So, if something is happening it has a consequence. It should be known already.

As the group is waiting for LH deliveries, they have to use their own ones as long as possible.

But they transfer the pax within the own group. It will not change I'm afraid

[rwandan-flyer]

Unbelievable! How long is LH Group going to let SN struggle with their unreliable old A330 fleet? Until all customers have gone?

I'm flying to JFK in May and have deliberately avoided booking with SN as I don't want a 50% chance to have my flight cancelled.

LOL do you know what is the age of a certain part of the LH fleet of LH, LX and OS??? Much, much older. Some of them are 27 years old planes. Compared to them, it's still young.

Maybe these other airlines have larger long haul fleets (with also more modern, younger planes), making it easier to find solutions/replacements if a old plane breaks down.

SN has a small and old long haul fleet. If one plane breaks down (lately every 2, 3 days!!) it has a huge impact and there is no possibility of finding a quick solution or replacement. Result: a cancelled flight, unhappy pax and reputation damage.

So the cancellation of today is SN229 to ABJ (OO-SFP).

What A330 flight will be cancelled tomorrow? The bets are open!

AF still flying some 27 years old B777-200ER ** . They have just started to retire their A330 which was delivered early 2000s. Their oldest B777-300ER reached its 20th years last year. Average age for the long haul fleet : 14,42 years old. It's not about the age, but the number of aircraft in the fleet.

The biggest part of long haul network for Brussels Airlines is in Africa, with many tag service and not huge frequencies (max 1 flight a day on some destinations). They serve Wahsington only in summer but they don't provide daily flights and to New York year around service, but not daily flight.

In winter AF serves Bangkok and Dubai 2 times a day with their B777-300ER (less flights in the summer). But less flights to USA with the B777-300ER.

In summer Air France operates up to 4 flights a day to Los Angeles using both A350s and B777-300ERs. 3 flights a day to San Fransico using mainly the B777-300ER. Boston is currently served 4 times a week , but during the busiest period AF serves Boston up to 3 times a day.

Sometimes they serve Dakar up to 2 times a day (only with B777-300ER), and Abidjan is often served 2 times a day (mix of A350s / B777-200ER / B777-300ER).

In this case, AF clearly needs a big fleet, because depening the period they serve some destinations several times a day


As some people have said, they have A330s in maintenance, because it's not a busy period for the demand in air travel and like i said, SN doesn't have a big long haul network. Some US UE flights are currently suspended. So of course, when you have techincal issue it affects your flight operations

The arrival of the next A330s will help airline to split some tag service, and probably to deal better with this issue. But they clearly don't need to get a big fleet of A330s But Brussels Airlines clearly doesn't need to have a fleet of 20 A330s right now.

** United Airlines (N774UA. will reach its 30th years in 2026!!) and British Airways still flying the oldest B777-200ER. Some of them are former prototype

[TimTam]

If the age of SN's A330 fleet is not the cause of the (AOG) problem, what/where is the problem ?

[TimTam]

I checked SN's web site to hopefully get some update on the Belgian Icons liveries. All I got was this :
https://www.brusselsairlines.com/be/en/ ... gian-icons
Is this up to date ? Is there any info available on the new Belgian Icon design which will be introduced after the closure on October 11, 2024, of the contest to choose a new Belgian Icon livery ? Thanks !

[RoMax]

If the age of SN's A330 fleet is not the cause of the (AOG) problem, what/where is the problem ?

I guess you do realise plenty of things can go wrong with an aircraft that have nothing to do with the age...?

The A330 is a realible and proven type. The A330-300 is an ideal aircraft for SN's Africa network (optimised balance between pax/cargo capacity and relatively short long-distance routes) and SN is not going to be better of short-term with a mixed type widebody fleet in these years of huge widebody delivery shortfalls by both Boeing and Airbus.

And about age... well let's look at some numbers:
- SN's A330 fleet are all in the 2005-2010 range, averaging 17yrs today
- LH's 27 A340's average >22yrs (the oldest from 1996)
- LH's 744's are all from 1998-2002 (even including the 'young' 748's LH's 27-strong 747 fleet already averages >15yrs)
- LX's A340's average >21yrs
- OS's 767/777 fleets average >24yrs
- AC's 20 strong A333 fleet averages >18yrs (oldest from 1999)
- DL's huge A330 averages 'just' 10yrs, but the 30-ish ex-NW's are all from the 2003-2007 age
- DL operates a 180-strong 757/767 fleet that averages >27yrs (the oldest from the late -80's)
- CX's A330 fleet nears 16yrs, but plenty of them are older than SN's oldest A330
- AF's A330's average 22 yrs
- AF's huge 63-strong 777 fleet averages 18,5yrs (oldest ones from late -90's)
- KE's nearly 20 A330's average nearly 20yrs
- QF's 27 A330's average 18yrs
- UA's >110 757/767 fleet averages 27yrs
- UA's >90 777 fleet averages >21yrs
- AA's nearly 70 777 fleet averages 20yrs
- BA's nearly 60 777 fleet averages nearly 21 yrs
Etc. Etc.

And now we are on this topic of fleet age, the same remarks often come on the A320-family fleet of SN. Let's also bring up some figures there (NEO's included when talking A320 or A321 subfleets):
- SN's A320 fleet averages >14yrs, the A319's near the 20yrs (oldest in the fleet from 2001) // not very young, but far from exceptional...
- OS's A320's near the 18yrs, the A321's are >27yrs
- LH's A319's near the 22yrs, A321's average 16.5yrs, A320's mix is young at just 10yrs average but the last from the -90's was only retired this month
- LX's A320's average >20yrs
- AF's A19's average >23yrs, A320's >15yrs, A321's >21yrs
- BA's A319's average >22yrs
- KL's 737's average >18yrs
- IB's A321's average nearly 20yrs
- AC's A320's average >22yrs, A321's nearly 20yrs
- UA's A319's (>80 of them) age >23yrs, the nearly 80 A320's average >25yrs
- AA's >130 A319's near the 21yrs, nearly 50 A320's nearing 24yrs
- DL's 50 A319's near 23yrs, the 55 A320's nearly 29yrs(!), the nearly 80 717's are >23yrs, the 240 strong 737 (NG/MAX) fleet is just nearing 14yrs but plenty of them still from late -90's and early -00's
Etc. Etc.

Main drivers to replace old aircraft are in view of fuel savings and heavy maintenance costs become increasingly expensive esp. with aircraft that operate a high number of cycles. In pure operational reliability age is just one of many factors, not thé driving factor.

[oldblueeyes]

If the age of SN's A330 fleet is not the cause of the (AOG) problem, what/where is the problem ?

I would say that it is a mix of several elements, which can lead either to improvements or chain reactions.

- the objective part is that most of the African destintions are fairly saying remote areas from a logistic point of view - if something is going wrong, even at minor parts, the likehood that spare parts are quickly available is reduced and any supply takes longer -> this would affect any type the company would operate, but fairly to say here that ageing aircraft are at a higher maintenance risk

- the second challenge is that of running effective operations - this is more difficult with a smaller fleet if you want to achieve eg 4.500 flight hours per aircraft and year - thus all timings : planned maintenance, spare aicraft capacity etc are squeezed

- third element - there is stress in the whole industry causing additional issues

Basically, there are two ways of managing this:

- reduce business volume/ growth in favaor of safe operations, more spare aircraft
- getting things more risky, accepting unpleasant situations, but generate in such way more money for growth

No right or wrong in any decision here. But from what i can see is that SN brought itself in a position where on short haul brand new aircraft straight out of the factory lines can be sustained by the business. If maybe in one year the next tranche of A320 NEOs would be approved to join SN, this may be also based on the foundation delivered by trying to maximize output on the long haul fleet.

[TimTam]

Thank you very much Romax and Oldblueeyes !!!
@obe : I would go for "reducing business volume/ growth in favor of safe operations, more spare aircraft" and building a reputation as a reliable airline (I know that other airlines also cancel flights, but it is less visible because they have more aircraft and do not have just one niche market) rather
than "getting things more risky, accepting unpleasant situations, but generate in such way more money for growth", I am not convinced this second option will generate more money in the medium term (poor reputation). Of course, that's only my gut feeling.

[Darjeeling]

Guys,

The cancellations aren’t always maintenance related, especially in months like January. It’s pure smart cancellations, low load factors, no cargo backlog… easy rebooking solutions (Ethiopian helps )…
Other legacy airlines do that.
SN has now a much fresher fleet that it had 10 years ago. Considering the high level of maintenance skill, the fields they operate to, they don’t have that much AOGs anymore.

D.

[Ge203]

Well, the recent cancellations are mx related. AOG due to an event requiring heavy maintenance, external manpower and components (an intervention that is typically done during C Check). Finding both the engineers and material required took time, but they are working on it. There will be cancellations until the aircraft is back in service. And again, not much SN can do.

[rwandan-flyer]

Guys,

The cancellations aren’t always maintenance related, especially in months like January. It’s pure smart cancellations, low load factors, no cargo backlog… easy rebooking solutions (Ethiopian helps )…
Other legacy airlines do that.
SN has now a much fresher fleet that it had 10 years ago. Considering the high level of maintenance skill, the fields they operate to, they don’t have that much AOGs anymore.

D.

It's the case for many airlines. Demand in January, February and Novermber is often very low.

American people go to Caribbean and South America. Europeans go to South America, Carribbean, some parts of Africa (Zanzibar, Mombasa, Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa), Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Dubaï.

So most of airline adpat their flights operations. In summer AF operates only 4 flights a week to Bangkok with an A350. In winter, they operate 2 flights a day, using high density B777-300ER (more 400 seats). Same thing with Dubai : 2 flights a day using B777-300ER in winter, but only one flight a day in summer

Many routes are reduced or suspended between Europe and North America.

Like each winter (even before covid) American has suspended its Paris Cdg Charlotte, Paris Cdg Philadelphia routes, but for Paris Cdg Chicago route it's the 1st time. In the past AF operated Paris Cdg Chicago route in summer, while Delta operated this route in winter.

AF serves Detroit 3 times a week (vs daily in summer), Boston 4 times a week (up to 3 flights a day in summer), Seattle 3 times a week, no flights to Minneapolis,....Of course Delta provides also flights on these routes but also with reduced capacity.

Less AF flights Washington, New York, San Fransisco, Montreal (which is big market for AF for point to point and for its African network) with 2 flights a day in winter vs 4 flights a day in summer


So for me it's not a suprise that load are bad in this period on some markets.

What i can't understand is why the airline keeps opening bookings while they konw in advance (like many North Americans and Europeans airlines) that the demand is very low. Ok, they can cancel some flights for these reasons but i can't believe it's the main reason of these cancelations.

[crew1990]

SN does not cancel flight because of low load factor, load factor is far to be low by the way as the network is adapted during those month, NO IAD, less JFK, more west Africa. Less flight globally as aircraft are in maintenance, painting, cabin mod etc.

Cancelling a flight is always done if no other solution is possible (=no aircraft available, no crew available, ATC strike, etc…)

If a flight is cancelled due to low factor which barely never happen on long haul, it will always be cancelled before the last day of the previous month, never last minut.

[Aviaguy]

I checked SN's web site to hopefully get some update on the Belgian Icons liveries. All I got was this :
https://www.brusselsairlines.com/be/en/ ... gian-icons
Is this up to date ? Is there any info available on the new Belgian Icon design which will be introduced after the closure on October 11, 2024, of the contest to choose a new Belgian Icon livery ? Thanks !

The Atomium icon should be introduced in March according to a recent press release you can find on Brussels Airlines website
https://press.brusselsairlines.com/brus ... elgian-dna

[fcw]

And about age... well let's look at some numbers:
- SN's A330 fleet are all in the 2005-2010 range, averaging 17yrs today
- LH's 27 A340's average >22yrs (the oldest from 1996)
- LH's 744's are all from 1998-2002 (even including the 'young' 748's LH's 27-strong 747 fleet already averages >15yrs)
- LX's A340's average >21yrs
- OS's 767/777 fleets average >24yrs
- AC's 20 strong A333 fleet averages >18yrs (oldest from 1999)
- DL's huge A330 averages 'just' 10yrs, but the 30-ish ex-NW's are all from the 2003-2007 age
- DL operates a 180-strong 757/767 fleet that averages >27yrs (the oldest from the late -80's)
- CX's A330 fleet nears 16yrs, but plenty of them are older than SN's oldest A330
- AF's A330's average 22 yrs
- AF's huge 63-strong 777 fleet averages 18,5yrs (oldest ones from late -90's)
- KE's nearly 20 A330's average nearly 20yrs
- QF's 27 A330's average 18yrs
- UA's >110 757/767 fleet averages 27yrs
- UA's >90 777 fleet averages >21yrs
- AA's nearly 70 777 fleet averages 20yrs
- BA's nearly 60 777 fleet averages nearly 21 yrs
Etc. Etc.

Some numbers indeed, unfortunately highly biased numbers!!
You are comparing SN’s entire long haul fleet with the eldest parts of the fleet of other airlines, thereby omitting the, almost, new aircraft those companies also have in their fleets.
As a manager it’s absolutely normal to defend your company, but please don’t compare apples with oranges!

[convair]

If the age of SN's A330 fleet is not the cause of the (AOG) problem, what/where is the problem ?

I guess you do realise plenty of things can go wrong with an aircraft that have nothing to do with the age...?

The A330 is a realible and proven type. The A330-300 is an ideal aircraft for SN's Africa network (optimised balance between pax/cargo capacity and relatively short long-distance routes) and SN is not going to be better of short-term with a mixed type widebody fleet in these years of huge widebody delivery shortfalls by both Boeing and Airbus.

And about age... well let's look at some numbers:
- SN's A330 fleet are all in the 2005-2010 range, averaging 17yrs today
- LH's 27 A340's average >22yrs (the oldest from 1996)
- LH's 744's are all from 1998-2002 (even including the 'young' 748's LH's 27-strong 747 fleet already averages >15yrs)
- LX's A340's average >21yrs
- OS's 767/777 fleets average >24yrs
- AC's 20 strong A333 fleet averages >18yrs (oldest from 1999)
- DL's huge A330 averages 'just' 10yrs, but the 30-ish ex-NW's are all from the 2003-2007 age
- DL operates a 180-strong 757/767 fleet that averages >27yrs (the oldest from the late -80's)
- CX's A330 fleet nears 16yrs, but plenty of them are older than SN's oldest A330
- AF's A330's average 22 yrs
- AF's huge 63-strong 777 fleet averages 18,5yrs (oldest ones from late -90's)
- KE's nearly 20 A330's average nearly 20yrs
- QF's 27 A330's average 18yrs
- UA's >110 757/767 fleet averages 27yrs
- UA's >90 777 fleet averages >21yrs
- AA's nearly 70 777 fleet averages 20yrs
- BA's nearly 60 777 fleet averages nearly 21 yrs
Etc. Etc.

And now we are on this topic of fleet age, the same remarks often come on the A320-family fleet of SN. Let's also bring up some figures there (NEO's included when talking A320 or A321 subfleets):
- SN's A320 fleet averages >14yrs, the A319's near the 20yrs (oldest in the fleet from 2001) // not very young, but far from exceptional...
- OS's A320's near the 18yrs, the A321's are >27yrs
- LH's A319's near the 22yrs, A321's average 16.5yrs, A320's mix is young at just 10yrs average but the last from the -90's was only retired this month
- LX's A320's average >20yrs
- AF's A19's average >23yrs, A320's >15yrs, A321's >21yrs
- BA's A319's average >22yrs
- KL's 737's average >18yrs
- IB's A321's average nearly 20yrs
- AC's A320's average >22yrs, A321's nearly 20yrs
- UA's A319's (>80 of them) age >23yrs, the nearly 80 A320's average >25yrs
- AA's >130 A319's near the 21yrs, nearly 50 A320's nearing 24yrs
- DL's 50 A319's near 23yrs, the 55 A320's nearly 29yrs(!), the nearly 80 717's are >23yrs, the 240 strong 737 (NG/MAX) fleet is just nearing 14yrs but plenty of them still from late -90's and early -00's
Etc. Etc.

Main drivers to replace old aircraft are in view of fuel savings and heavy maintenance costs become increasingly expensive esp. with aircraft that operate a high number of cycles. In pure operational reliability age is just one of many factors, not thé driving factor.

Thank you RoMax.
That clearly shows the SN fleet is NOT older than others'.

Not being an expert, I'd like to point out to several aspects where SN's situation seems peculiar:
1. As some people have pointed out, seats offer has been drastically reduced in the winter season on l/h flights by several airlines;
2. SN, on the contrary, seems to be willing to keep its offer as high as possible, specially on the Africa network, in which it has a very good position which they want to preserve by maintaining its reliability on that market;
3. As somepeople remark, that Afi network is more demanding and more difficult to serve than others;
4. SN is not rich (mother Lufty is not articularly generous wth her belgian child), so maintenance costs are probably kept at a minimum, both in terms of manpower and spare parts stocks.

I'd very much like to know where I'm wrong.

[rwandan-flyer]

And about age... well let's look at some numbers:
- SN's A330 fleet are all in the 2005-2010 range, averaging 17yrs today
- LH's 27 A340's average >22yrs (the oldest from 1996)
- LH's 744's are all from 1998-2002 (even including the 'young' 748's LH's 27-strong 747 fleet already averages >15yrs)
- LX's A340's average >21yrs
- OS's 767/777 fleets average >24yrs
- AC's 20 strong A333 fleet averages >18yrs (oldest from 1999)
- DL's huge A330 averages 'just' 10yrs, but the 30-ish ex-NW's are all from the 2003-2007 age
- DL operates a 180-strong 757/767 fleet that averages >27yrs (the oldest from the late -80's)
- CX's A330 fleet nears 16yrs, but plenty of them are older than SN's oldest A330
- AF's A330's average 22 yrs
- AF's huge 63-strong 777 fleet averages 18,5yrs (oldest ones from late -90's)
- KE's nearly 20 A330's average nearly 20yrs
- QF's 27 A330's average 18yrs
- UA's >110 757/767 fleet averages 27yrs
- UA's >90 777 fleet averages >21yrs
- AA's nearly 70 777 fleet averages 20yrs
- BA's nearly 60 777 fleet averages nearly 21 yrs
Etc. Etc.

Some numbers indeed, unfortunately highly biased numbers!!
You are comparing SN’s entire long haul fleet with the eldest parts of the fleet of other airlines, thereby omitting the, almost, new aircraft those companies also have in their fleets.
As a manager it’s absolutely normal to defend your company, but please don’t compare apples with oranges!

The world average age fleet is 14,8 years (https://www.forbes.com/sites/tedreed/20 ... in-stalls/). The whole fleet for Brussels Airlines : 16,8 years (https://www.google.com/search?client=fi ... rage+fleet). A little bit older, but the gap is not very high. With the arrival of more A320NEO and the retirement of oldest A319s / A320s, the fleet will be a little bit younger.

And Lufthansa Group has many brand new aircraft in order.

But again as some people have already said there. There are long delays for brand new aircraft. Forbes says:

Geneva-based IATA, the trade organization for 340 airlines around the world, said the decline reflects supply chain issues involving aircraft makers and engine makers. “Aircraft deliveries have fallen sharply from the peak of 1,813 aircraft in 2018,” IATA said. “The estimate for 2024 deliveries is 1,254 aircraft, a 30% shortfall on what was predicted going into the year.”

In 2025, deliveries are forecast to rise to 1,802, well below earlier expectation for 2,293 deliveries. Downward revisions during 2025 are seen as “quite possible,” IATA said. Meanwhile, the backlog of unfulfilled orders has reached a record 17,000: at current delivery rates, this would take 14 years to fulfill, although the wait time is expected to eventually shorten.

[oldblueeyes]

Some numbers indeed, unfortunately highly biased numbers!!
You are comparing SN’s entire long haul fleet with the eldest parts of the fleet of other airlines, thereby omitting the, almost, new aircraft those companies also have in their fleets.
As a manager it’s absolutely normal to defend your company, but please don’t compare apples with oranges!

The numbers may be comparable, as companies having larger fleets with various models pull routes together to various subfleets. So BA would allocate for a whole winter or summer season some destinations to their let's say 789 subfleet and only in case of something special they would switch on few dates towards let's say 773.

As a benchmark, if you consider LH's typical pattern of using widebodies around 25 years there would be a median age of 13 years , now maybe 14 due to up to 2 years storage time during covid as a sweet spot.
So indeed, the fleet is mathematically slighty older, however as replacement in the group happend in campaigns of subfleets, the widebodies would be due from 2030 onwards. Anthything else would make no sense.

[fcw]

The numbers may be comparable, as companies having larger fleets with various models pull routes together to various subfleets. So BA would allocate for a whole winter or summer season some destinations to their let's say 789 subfleet and only in case of something special they would switch on few dates towards let's say 773.

Of course, it would be a logistic nightmare swapping aircraft type every day. But that was not my point!
Romax compared the eldest subfleets of other companies with the entire SN fleet and that is comparing apples with oranges. The fact the same subfleet operates the same destination for a whole season doesn’t justify his bias.

Back on topic: The SN fleet isn’t young, but not very old either, however Africa is a harsh environment to operate in. Runways and fuel aren’t comparable with Western standards and triangular or W patterns cause more cycles. As SN is operating almost exclusively African flights the fleet ages faster.
The only solution is to built more resilience in the schedule, but then the operation isn’t profitable anymore…