Air Belgium S.A. is a Belgian charter and cargo airline headquartered in Mont-Saint-Guibert and based at Brussels Airport.[4] Founded in 2016, it initially launched as a scheduled passenger airline on 3 June 2018, before transitioning to charter and cargo operations on 3 October 2023.
History
Foundation and early years
A former Air Belgium Airbus A340-300 which was the airline's first type and was retired in 2022.
The first flight from Brussels to Hong Kong was planned to take off in October 2017,[5] however this was postponed as the airline lacked an air operator's certificate (AOC).[8] In December 2017, Air Belgium announced that the first flight should now take place in March 2018 from Brussels South Charleroi Airport instead of Brussels Airport due to lower airport taxes and easy accessibility; it was also announced that, for business class and premium passengers, the airline would operate from a new dedicated terminal which would be built at the executive terminal, while economy passengers would use the regular terminal.[4][9]
On 14 March 2018, it was announced that the airline had received its AOC from the Belgian civil aviation authority and planned to begin operating scheduled flights from mid-April.[10] On 29 March 2018, the airline flew its first revenue service by operating its Airbus A340-300 in Air Belgium livery on behalf of Surinam Airways from Amsterdam to Paramaribo.[11] On 25 April 2018, the airline announced a delay to its own inaugural flight (to Hong Kong) from 30 April to 3 June 2018 due to not having the rights to operate in Russian airspace.[12]
Since the commencement of the service for the first destination, it started operating a scheduled service between Charleroi and Hong Kong. Moreover, the other aircraft of the fleet was provided to Air France for a daily service between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Libreville during the 2018 summer season.[citation needed]
On 21 September 2018, the airline announced that scheduled operations between Charleroi and Hong Kong would be suspended during winter,[13][14] and the airline would instead focus on charter operations. The route should have restarted at the end of March 2019,[13] but two weeks before the planned date Air Belgium instead announced that they would be terminating the route and working towards starting new services to mainland China in mid-2019, and the Americas in late 2019 or early 2020.[15]
On 30 January 2021, Air Belgium announced that cargo flights would start with four Airbus A330-200F based in Liège Airport, on behalf of French shipping company CMA CGM, which purchased the airframes and contracted with Air Belgium to fly them.[17] These four planes are progressively re-matriculated in France during the 2022-2023 winter. [18] On 1 July 2021, Air Belgium announced it would add two Airbus A330-900s to its fleet and operate services between Brussels Airport and Mauritius from 15 October 2021.[19]
In November 2022, Air Belgium announced the need of a recapitalisation to avoid bankruptcy after accumulating severe losses.[20] The airline already received €19 million during the same year from its Chinese minority owners which have been already used up as the airline's primary charter business did not fully recover in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.[2] The airline subsequently also announced it would cut and suspend several passenger routes.[21][2] In January 2023, Air Belgium announced that sufficient funding has been secured from private investors to keep operations running while there was no further financial support from the state.[22]
In September 2023, Air Belgium announced that all scheduled passenger flights would end on 3 October 2023, and their fleet would be operated for other airlines on an ACMI basis as part of the termination of passenger services.[23]
In January 2024, it has been reported that Air Belgium significantly downsized its workforce and plans to phase out both of their barely two year old Airbus A330-900 due to ongoing engine issues.[24]
Destinations
As of 3 October 2023, Air Belgium operated scheduled passenger flights to the following destinations,[25] after which the airline's scheduled operations ended.[26] The following table does not include destinations operated to by the airline's charter or cargo services.
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€140,547,477 (2021)[3]
– €11,988,500 (2021)[3].jpg)
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