Long haul plans at Brussels Airport by 2011

[Atlantis]

Finally I can give the future plans about long haul operations at Brussels Airport. Goal is to serve those destinations by 2011. Some of them will arrive/depart at late noon or evening.

Destination - Airline
Boston American Airlines (small hub)
Dallas American Airlines (small hub)
Vancouver Air Transat
Dubai Emirates
Bangkok China Airlines
Shanghai Hainan Airlines (European hub)
Singapore Singapore Airlines
Tokyo JAL or ANA


I can't give more information at this moment. The long haul part is a part of a bigger issue about the plans at Brussels Airport. From time to time I can give info AFTER the officials released this info. So I hope that everyone understand this. But to me, it looks good.

[Established02]

It is remarkable that AA would seek to expand at BRU, despite of SN now teaming up with LH and Star Alliance.

I'm quite surprised to see YVR on this list.

> Bangkok China Airlines

I assume you can add Taipeh as well then, right?

[b-west]

Keeping my fingers crossed for Singapore!


Surprisingly, only 2 airlines are part of Star Alliance (SQ & ANA), and one of them is not even certain. And why Bangkok by China Airlines and not Thai?

Also, Jet Airways is strangely absent. Or are the current plans of Jet Airways not included?

[Conti764]

Surprisingly, only 2 airlines are part of Star Alliance (SQ & ANA), and one of them is not even certain.

Maybe an indication that BRU is working closely with Oneworld, even with the likely entry of SN in *A?

[Conti764]

Finally I can give the future plans about long haul operations at Brussels Airport. Goal is to serve those destinations by 2011. Some of them will arrive/depart at late noon or evening.

Destination - Airline
Boston American Airlines (small hub)
Dallas American Airlines (small hub)
Vancouver Air Transat
Dubai Emirates
Bangkok China Airlines
Shanghai Hainan Airlines (European hub)
Singapore Singapore Airlines
Tokyo JAL or ANA

So, BRU will become a small hub for AA? Logical move since the nearest airports are all either ST territory (CDG and AMS) or *A-territory (FRA and ZRH).

Will Hainan be with the A340-600? I've seen a recent picture on A.net of a 346 still in HU colors.

[brusselsairlinesfan]

And no new long-haul destinations from the brussels airlines front?!

[pijaleu]

At last we find Emirates in the list.
Looking at their current destinations we find several airports much smaller than BRU (Nice, Hamburg, Venice, Malta, Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle).
A bit weird to me they are flying to those (with all respect) 3th row airports, rather than 2nd row airports such as BRU, or even big a airport as AMS.

I don't know the size of market within the Benelux for flights to Dubai, but you would think there's a huge potential. And Dubai is becomming more and more popular as tourist destination.

Hopefully the given list is correct (and I'm sure about that, as Atlantis is a relyiable source) and can even be enlarged.
Can't wait to see them all comming

[LX-LGX]

Their results for the first Quarter 2008 (unaudited):

http://www.macquarie.com.au/au/map/news ... 300408.pdf

[BrightCedars]

It all sounds very nice but the airport's strategy is one thing, and the airlines' is a totally different thing.

I think the AA thingy may not materialize, I'm not seeing them be able to do at BRU what they could do at LHR or at another larger continental hub e.g. CDG. That is unless SN retains the right to codeshare with AA after being absorbed by LH and entering the Star Alliance. Seems like too many ifs to me.

I hope SN will be putting it's own metal on BKK, CI would be nice but something homegrown and in cooperation with TG inside Star Alliance seems more appropriate. Is CI joining an alliance soon? Together with TG, BKK could be the South-East Asian and Pacific hub for SN, serving key regional destinations like HKG, JKT, KUL, MNL, SIN and down under. SIN would be nice but I don't see SQ return to BRU anytime soon. The premium traffic is not here, the rest goes via AMS, CDG, FRA and LHR or flies EY and eventually will fly EK later on.

I hope Japan can be in the picture as well. NH would now be more logical, we'll have to see. Maybe SN metal here as well depending how LH is seeing things. BRU would have been a good oneworld hub, no issue about that, but some recent events have shifted the cards quite dramatically away from that perspective.

[tolipanebas]

Finally I can give the future plans about long haul operations at Brussels Airport.

Sounds great. Now, this list of long haul priorities is obviously not thought up overnight, but possibly over the last year or so, based on the (then) current situation at BRU. A situation which MUST have taken into acount the fact that SN was a non-allied home carrier back then, willing to code-share with all interesting airlines, but notably with strong OneWorld ties.

Do these plans take into account the fact that SN has rather surprisingly decided NOT go to OneWorld pretty much on its own strength, but rather teamed up with Lufthansa and will thus join STAR before the end of the decade? To me it looks like these 'plans' are drawn up prior to the announcement by SN and are thus already basically worthless as we speek...

Looking just at the list of destinations in the US it seems very irrealistic to expect AA to fly any of these, given the fact they only have a relatively small hub on one end and basically no more connections at the other end. Maybe Boston can still be served on its own merits (O&D on 757 on weekdays only) but especially Dallas can't be nothing but an utopia these days! I mean: AA is likely going to stop NYC once their code-share with SN comes to an end, yet BRU is hoping they'd be opening secondary destinations from BRU?

If anything REALISTIC is to be expected now, it is the opening of transatlantic routes by STAR alliance airlines like UA (ORD), AC (Montreal) or CO (second daily EWR).

Whether BRU really likes it or not, they are going to have to focus predominantly on the STAR alliance airlines now: their home carrier will enter STAR and their second biggest customer is Lufthansa. Add OS, SK, LX, BD and some smaller airlines to it and it becomes cristal clear who is to be their natural partner: more than 2/3rd of all pax are brought in on carriers of this alliance! Now, I can understand the airport though: with SN/LH having such a big grip on them, they just know they are going to be squeezed by the Germans to lower their prices drastically, so BRU is probably desperately trying to diversify their portfolio of customers asap in order to resist this... I think it will be too little, too late for them (partly given their foolish focus on LCC in the past) and SN/LH will thus manage to twist their arm on pricing. Which is obviously good news for these airlines as well as the customers: BRU is at least 30% too expensive these days.

[Atlantis]

Also, Jet Airways is strangely absent. Or are the current plans of Jet Airways not included?

Jet Airways is indeed not in the list because Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi and Bangalore are already excisting routes to/from BRU. They were indeed on the list 2 years ago.

Will Hainan be with the A340-600? I've seen a recent picture on A.net of a 346 still in HU colors.

Hainan will use the A340-600 on the new route to Boston. But not those of CX. Apparently they have ordered two new ones.

And no new long-haul destinations from the brussels airlines front?!

At this moment only expanding on the Africa-routes -> with the help of LH airplanes?

[Dandy Warhol]

If anything REALISTIC is to be expected now, it is the opening of transatlantic routes by STAR alliance airlines like UA (ORD), AC (Montreal) or CO (second daily EWR).

CO is not a STAR alliance member, as far as I know
Maybe a Charlotte flight by US might be in the works then?

[lumumba]

Hi Dandy.
Yes CO is a STAR member.
Regards
Patrice

[B737229]

Hi Dandy.
Yes CO is a STAR member.
Regards
Patrice

Co is SKYTEAM

[BrightCedars]

Technically the one who's right is the one who says CO is a member of Skyteam, however CO has publicly stated that they were on the way out and would join Star Alliance instead. It just didn't happen yet.

[taz001]

United requested a slot at Brussels Airport for a Chicago flight... But than again, it is not the first time they do this... We can only wait and see what they will do this time. I think it would make sense if they installed an ORD flight next to their highly profitable IAD flight because of the LH/SN/*Alliance connection.

[OO-JFP]

by taz001 on 03 Nov 2008 04:33 pm

United requested a slot at Brussels Airport for a Chicago flight... But than again, it is not the first time they do this... We can only wait and see what they will do this time. I think it would make sense if they installed an ORD flight next to their highly profitable IAD flight because of the LH/SN/*Alliance connection.

UAL950 now routes ORD-IAD-BRU and vv for UAL951.
Do you mean they'll split it up or an additional flight ORD-BRU ?

[lumumba]

O.K for the moment they are Skyteam but with the summer timetable they will be Star.
Regards
Pat

[tolipanebas]

Indeed, for the time being CO is a member of Skyteam, but I was obviously talking about the future here, since this is a strategic plan we're discussing, so in that context CO is to be considered as a STAR alliance airline already.

I expect CO to expand at BRU, partly on the back of code-shares with SN.

I can very well see CO replace AA as Brussels Airlines' US partner, thus seeing CO put its flight codes on almost all of SN's morning flights. Add a second daily EWR flight to the offering and SN and CO can code-share around the clock.

And what's more, it would make good sence for both of them to do so, because for SN Newark offers far better connectivety than JFK and for CO, because they can then offer something really different from UA, which has been code-sharing with LH for a very long time already...
2 completely different STAR offerings between the US and the EU: CO with SN or UA with LH/LX...
Product diversification is important, especially amongst competing alliance members, you know?

AA on the other hand won't do much but pull out from the JFK route IMO, so I really don't think the strategic objectives of BRU are in line with the future realities any longer. BRU better updates their objectives asap or they risk putting too much effort in irrealistic targets.

[taz001]

UAL950 now routes ORD-IAD-BRU and vv for UAL951.
Do you mean they'll split it up or an additional flight ORD-BRU ?

Yes, they are interested in a direct ORD-BRU flight. I don't know what bird they would fly eventually, but I think most logical they would start with a 763 next to their 772. It would also mean direct competition for AA.

I was surprised to see AA on the list with new long haul destinations. It is because of their codeshare with SN that they can have two daily flights, the flight to JFK was a direct consequence of the collaboration with SN, so people at AA Brussels fear that their JFK flight will disappear as soon as the codesharing with SN stops.