BRU-MAN-BRU with SN Brussels Airlines

[sn26567]

On 13 May I had to fly to Manchester for the third time this year. By booking one month in advance I could get the reasonable rate of €315.32.

The outbound flight was SN2173. It was codeshared not only with BA, but also with AA(7747), a first for me to MAN. For the whole week it was operated by an A319 instead of the usual ARJ100. It happened to be exactly the same plane as the one that took me back from Barcelona the night before: OO-SSG. Meanwhile, it had flown to Casablanca and back, while I went home for a short night stop.

Boarding and pushback were right on time (09:50). I had window seat 6A, right behind the business class separation. The load factor was 35% in Y, 20% in C (5 pax for 15 seats). There was no real need for an A319, not even an ARJ100. An ARJ85 would have been half-full.

Breakfast was a Brussels Bistro box with a small roll, butter, cheese, a small Mars bar, orange juice. I had a coffee with that. And I got the usual Neuhaus chocolates at the end of the flight. During the flight, the screens showed the itinerary and other useful flight information.

Arrival was 5 minutes early, after a smooth uneventful flight.

For the return I was booked on BA1620. When I arrived at the airport at 15:00, I saw that I still could catch SN2178 scheduled at 15:55. I ran to the SN Brussels counter to change my ticket for a fee of €50.00. What a luck: not only did I avoid the dreaded BA Avro witgh 6 seats abreast, but I would also be home 95 minutes earlier.

The plane was an Avro RJ85 OO-DJR under the command of Captain De Groote, with Sonia Vanderstappen as the friendly purser. Departure was 10 minutes early, but we had to wait at the entrance of the runway as we were only nr. 4 for take-off. The Brussels Bistro lmeal was a choice between apple pie and a salad. As I had the pie on the previous MAN-BRU flight, I chose the salad: a few vegetable sticks with a dip sauce and pretzels. Small but good. With a bottle of white wine. And the Neuhaus chocolates.

Arrival in Brussels was on time and the flight had again been excellent, with a load factor of 70%.

[Avro]

Thanks for the very nice report André

The load factor was 35% in Y, 20% in C (5 pax for 15 seats). There was no real need for an A319, not even an ARJ100. An ARJ85 would have been half-full.

But the flight back to BRU has maybe required the A319 !!!

Greetz
Chris

[Sabena_690]

Excellent report André, thanks for sharing!

Personally I'd have preferred the apple pie

Frederic

[dna]

Nice report André!

I wonder what the general load factor is on the BRU-MAN route. I have flown between the two cities a few times, but I cannot recall ever being on a full flight. The very first time I flew to Manchester - must have been 1988 - I was on a Sabena B737, and there were only about ten passengers on-board. Two years ago, I booked on BMI, but by the time I was travelling they had already given up the route, so we were switched to BA - and their aircraft was barely half full.

Dave

[sn26567]

But the flight back to BRU has maybe required the A319 !!!

Not so, Chris. the A319 has been scheduled for a full week, whatever the loads on the route.

@dna: my recent experience on BRU-MAN (I fly the route quite often) has always shown reasonable load factorsn from 60 to 90%. This was an exception on the low side.

[Comet]

When I flew MAN-BRU-MAN on Sabena, in 2000 and 2001, the flights were always full, both on the ARJ and the Boeing 737-300 and 500.

I have not flown the route with SNBA yet. The only SNBA flights I've had had load factors of around 70% on Birmingham to Brussels and 99% on Brussels to Birmingham, and the passengers were almost exclusively commuters and businessmen types (apart from us!) Both flights were ARJ - the 85 on the flight from BHX and the 100 from BRU.