Brussels Airlines (stylized as brussels airlines) is the flag carrier[3] and largest airline of Belgium, based and headquartered at Brussels Airport. It operates to over 90 destinations in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia and also offers charter services, maintenance and crew training.[4] The airline is a member of the Star Alliance as well as the International Air Transport Association. The airline's IATA code SN is inherited from its predecessors, Sabena and SN Brussels Airlines. Lufthansa purchased 45% of the company in 2009, and on September 29, 2016, Lufthansa announced it would purchase the remainder of Brussels Airlines for €2.6 million euros.[5] The transaction was completed in early January 2017.[6]
Brussels Airlines was created following the merger of SN Brussels Airlines (SNBA) and Virgin Express, the former subsequently created after the bankruptcy of Belgium's legacy national carrier Sabena. On 12 April 2005, SN Airholding, the company behind SNBA, signed an agreement with Richard Branson, giving it control over Virgin Express. On 31 March 2006 SNBA and Virgin Express announced their merger into a single company. On 7 November 2006, the new name, Brussels Airlines, was announced at a press conference at Brussels Airport. Brussels Airlines began operations on 25 March 2007. [citation needed]
On 15 September 2008, it was announced that Lufthansa would acquire a 45% stake in Brussels Airlines with an option to acquire the remaining 55% from 2011. As a part of this deal, Brussels Airlines would join Star Alliance.[7][8] From 26 October 2008, the ICAO code was changed from DAT to BEL.
On 15 June 2009, Brussels Airlines announced that the European Commission had granted approval for Lufthansa to take a minority share in Brussels Airlines. As a result of this clearance by the EU, Brussels Airlines was able to join Star Alliance.[9]
Since 25 October 2009, Brussels Airlines has been a member of Lufthansa's frequent flyer programme Miles & More. On 9 December 2009, Brussels Airlines became the 26th Star Alliance member during a ceremony at Brussels Town Hall. [citation needed]
On 15 December 2009, Brussels Airlines announced it was working on a new regional airline in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The name of the airline was Korongo. The main base of the airline was at Lubumbashi in Congo. The airline was launched in April 2012 and shut down in 2015. Brussels Airlines cancelled the airDC project, due to disagreements with Hewa Bora.
On 5 July 2010, a fifth Airbus A330-300 entered into service. Brussels Airlines increased its frequency to Abidjan (up to 6 weekly) and added Accra, Cotonou, Ouagadougou, and Lomé as new destinations. On 11 August 2010, Brussels Airlines and tour operator Club Med announced a new cooperation. As from April 2011, Brussels Airlines will transport 80% of all Club Med passengers out of Brussels, both on existing regular Brussels Airlines routes as on new charter routes operated by Brussels Airlines. Brussels Airlines also announced that it will lease 2 Airbus A320 aircraft from January 2011.[10]
On 26 August 2010, the company announced its new maintenance project. The contract with Sabena Technics for the A330 and Boeing 737 ended on 1 January 2011 and Brussels Airlines will then do the maintenance on the planes. To be able to do this, the move from Building 117 to Hangar 41 was necessary. Also, 73 people from Sabena Technics joined the Brussels Airlines maintenance staff.
Brussels Airlines is adding more American destinations to its network. On 1 June 2012[11] Brussels Airlines inaugurated the route to New York JFK, operating daily with an Airbus A330-300 fitted with the new interior. This is the first Belgian airline in 10 years to fly to New York, after the collapse of Sabena and Delsey Airlines. Since 18 June 2013 they also fly 5 times a week to Washington Dulles.[12] Since April 2016 Toronto Pearson has been added to the North-American network.[13] It has been announced that as from March 2017 a new service to Mumbai will commence with 5 flights per week operated by a new Airbus A330-200 arriving early 2017.
On 30 January 2014, Brussels Airlines launched its most important expansion in its history, with nine confirmed seasonal destination and a return to the Polish market after some years of absence. It also confirmed the permanent exit of its Avro RJ100 fleet by 2016.[14]
On 22 March 2016, members of the terrorist organization ISIL detonated two bombs in Brussels Airport, closing the airport until Sunday, 27 March 2016. Brussels Airlines shifted some long haul flights to Zurich and Frankfurt and began Airbus A319/Avro RJ100 shuttle service between Liege/Antwerp and Zurich/Frankfurt, as well as provided contracted bus service from Brussels to Antwerp and Liege from where it flew to European destinations.[15]
On 28 September 2016, the Supervisory Board of Lufthansa announced that the airline would exercise the option to acquire the remaining 55% of Brussels Airlines' parent company SN Airholding. The modalities would be defined before the end of the year in order to conclude the transaction at the beginning of 2017. .[16]
In March 2017, Thomas Cook announced its intention to sell its Belgian operations to Lufthansa, Brussels Airlines' parent company. Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium was shut down by November 2017 with two aircraft and all traffic rights being handed to Brussels Airlines.[17][18]
Corporate affairs
Head office
b.house, Brussels Airlines head office on the grounds of Brussels Airport
The company is headquartered in the b.house (Building 26) in the General Aviation Zone on the grounds of Brussels Airport and in Diegem, Machelen.[19][20][21] The airline asked the Belgian design agency MAXIMALdesign to design the interior of the facility.[22]
Brussels Airlines is almost 100% owned by SN Airholding SA/NV (1,811,308 shares out of 1,811,309), a Belgian holding company. Lufthansa owns 100% of SN Airholding SA/NV.[25]
Bernard Gustin has been the sole CEO (previously joint with Michel Meyfroidt) since June 2012. The Executive Committee consists of Gustin, Lars Redeligx (CCO) and Jan De Raeymaeker (CFO).
Limited information appears to be published. However, accounts for all Belgian companies must be filed with the National Bank of Belgium. Information available since 2007 (the first year of operations as Brussels Airlines) appears to be as follows (for years ending 31 December):
Brussels Airlines previously operated 6 BAe 146-200s which were withdrawn in 2008.
During 2009, the airline tested the fuel burn reduction of the AeroTech Services B737 Wing Modification on one Boeing 737-400. After realizing favorable results, the airline modified three more 737s in May and June 2010.
During 2010, two Airbus A319-100s joined Brussels Airlines' fleet. The first Airbus A320-200 joined the fleet in February 2011 and made its first commercial flight on 23 April 2011.
With improving financial performance, rising cash reserves and a desire to reduce costs more rapidly, Brussels Airlines accelerated their fleet replacement plan by ordering 12 aircraft in August 2011. Six A319s, four A320s and two A330-200s were added to the fleet. This has completed the exit of Boeing aircraft from the fleet and accelerated the replacement of the Avro RJ85.
Starting 2016, Brussels Airlines began phasing out the Avro RJ100 and replaced them with the Airbus A320 family and wet leased Sukhoi Superjets. This will be completed by the end of 2017.[40] The last commercial Brussels Airlines flight of the Avro RJ100 took place on October 28, 2017.
Livery
The aircraft livery consists of a 'dotted B' logo on the blue tail, a white belly covering the whole aircraft's length, with the name 'Brussels Airlines' written in dark blue on the upper fuselage, preceded by the airline's 'b' logo. Most planes have an altered 'b' logo after superstitious travellers complained about the thirteen dots bringing bad luck.[41] The logo now contains fourteen dots. Besides the familiar blue, red and white livery, Brussels Airlines launched a series of Belgian Icons in their Airbus A320 fleet, all representing things that are typically Belgian: Rackham (a Tintin themed aircraft), Magritte (an ode to the famous surrealist artist René Magritte), Trident (the aircraft for the Belgian national football team The Red Devils) and Amare (the Tomorrowland Festival themed plane). In 2018 an additional aircraft will be themed to the Smurfs.
Service
Tariff structure
On European flights, the airline offers four types of tickets:
Check&Go is a low cost fare, without checked-in luggage and with a buy on board programme offering snacks and drinks.
Light&Relax is a regular economy class with a buy on board programme offering snacks and drinks for purchase.
Flex&Fast is an economy plus class, offering full service, such as complimentary newspapers, catering, fast lane at security, change flexibility and priority boarding.
Bizz&Class is a full-service business class on the European network. It offers premium meals, free champagne and full flexibility.
On medium-haul and long-haul flights (Africa, United States and Tel Aviv), Brussels Airlines offers economy, economy privilege and business classes.
Inflight entertainment
Brussels Airlines has two inflight magazines. For the European network there is b-there! which is a monthly magazine. On the African network, the magazine is named B Spirit Magazine[42] and is published every two months. Both magazines are available on board or as a PDF download through their respective websites. The magazines are also available as a freely downloadable application for Apple's iPad.[43]
From November 2011 until the end of 2012 Brussels Airlines has introduced a new interior on the A330 fleet. The new economy seats feature AVOD personal in-flight entertainment 9 inch screens. Also business class got new lie-flat seats with an improved AVOD IFE system with 15 inch screens, supplied by the IMS-Company and known as "RAVE".
Frequent flyer programme
Brussels Airlines uses Miles & More, Lufthansa's frequent flyer programme. Miles can be earned on flights operated by airlines which are part of the programme, in addition to flights operated by Star Alliance airlines.[44]
Miles can also be earned with Brussels Airlines' non-airline partners.[45]
Brussels Airlines customers have been able to earn Miles & More benefits since 25 October 2009,[46]
when Brussels Airlines' previous frequent flyer programme, Privilege, ended. There was a conversion of Privilege Gold members into Miles & More Frequent Travellers, while Privilege Platinum card holders became Miles & More Senators. Privilege miles were converted on a 1 to 1 basis.
On 19 October 2015 Brussels Airlines launched a new customer programme called Loop, which is available for all flights in the airline's European network. Loop is designed for the increasing number of customers who fly Brussels Airlines regularly within Europe and do not receive significant benefits from traditional frequent flyer programmes.
^Dron, Alan (12 January 2017). "Brussels Airlines to wet-lease Superjets". Air Transport World. Archived from the original on 17 January 2017. The Belgian flag carrier will use three Sukhoi SSJ100 Superjets from Ireland-based CityJet beginning in April, when the aircraft start a two-year contract.
^"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 30 November 2016. Retrieved 2016-10-27. ((cite web)): Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 5 October 2016. Retrieved 2016-10-03. ((cite web)): Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^"Africa is our passion." Brussels Airlines. Retrieved on 6 July 2011. "Brussels Airlines – zone General Aviation – b.house – Airport Building 26 – Ringbaan – 1831 Diegem – Belgium"
^"General Conditions of Carriage". Brussels Airlines. Archived from the original on 7 May 2008. Retrieved 17 June 2008. "“ WE ”, “ OUR ” “ OURSELVES ” and “ US ” means Delta Air Transport SA/NV, trading as Brussels Airlines and having its registered office at 11, Rue des Colonies -Koloniënstraat, 1000 Brussels, Belgium."
^"HomeArchived 16 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine." Brussels Airlines. Retrieved on 4 February 2012. "Brussels Airlines – zone General Aviation – b.house – Airport Building 26 – Ringbaan – 1831 Diegem – Belgium Registered office: Brussels Airlines SA/NV – 100–102, Avenue des Saisons, box 30, 1050 Brussels, Belgium"
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