Blue Air - the successful unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

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Klausenburg
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Blue Air - the successful unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by Klausenburg »

This thread is dedicated to the least known "Belgian" airline, Blue Air. Well, the company that flies under the name Blue Air, Airport Management Solutions, has mixt capital, Romanian and Belgian. Also, the platform used to sell the tickets is provided by MaxiTours Belgium and use a ".be" domain. Luciana Paunescu (long term resident of Brussels - probably has Belgian citizenship) the former manager of Maxitours, and Tudor Constantinescu (resident of Brussels at least for a while) former pilot at Blue Air, are two of the four private investors who bought Blue Air from its former owner, togheter with Maxitours. Blue Air (BMS) is a low cost company which practice a mixed model (like Brussels Airlines somewhat), and will have 8 bases in 2017: Bucharest, Constanta, Iasi, Bacau, Cluj, Torino (Italy), Larnaca (Cyprus), Liverpool (UK). In Belgium they operating on Zaventem.

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Re: Blue Air - the succesfull unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by sn26567 »

Thanks for introducing that topic.

When you say "bases", do you mean some aircraft are based in these cities? As for Liverpool, such a base might be short-lived due to Brexit!
André
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Klausenburg
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Re: Blue Air - the succesfull unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by Klausenburg »

Today was announced the new base on Liverpool John Lennon Airport, which will come online in March 2017. The destinations operate from there will be: Rome (daily), Milan-Bergamo (4 weekly), Hamburg (4 weekly) and Alicante (3 weekly). While on the first three there is no other company operating, towards Alicante both Ryanair and EasyJet are flying...

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Re: Blue Air - the succesfull unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by Klausenburg »

sn26567 wrote:Thanks for introducing that topic.

When you say "bases", do you mean some aircraft are based in these cities? As for Liverpool, such a base might be short-lived due to Brexit!
Yes, there are aircraft based now in 6 airports (since next year 8 - with Constanta and Liverpool coming online). The biggest base is Bucharest - Otopeni, and the sencond one, with no less then 5 planes is... Torino.

About the new base on Liverpool John Lennon... they took a risk indeed, but it might pay. AFAIK, the Brexit will take at least 2 years after the trigger of the article 50... so the base will have no problems until then. But what will be beyond the moment Brexit become effective, we can't know yet... It might be short lived , indeed...


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Re: Blue Air - the succesfull unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by Klausenburg »

Also, yesterday there were two inaugural flights from Turin base - Napoli and Pescara. The base there is growing nicely...

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Re: Blue Air - the succesfull unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by Klausenburg »

The destinations offered from Brussels - Zaventem:

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Re: Blue Air - the succesfull unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by cathay belgium »

Hi,

CTA direct ? Don't think so,..
Blue Air, nice fares, worn out planes, safety rules are optional , didn't dim the lights during landing two weeks ago !
Try to avoid it now, if booked in advance TAROM is as much more value for money !
Is there any official place were to report the lack of safety here ? As I report this issue to Blue Air still no answer in my mailbox :/

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Re: Blue Air - the succesfull unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by sn26567 »

Your last picture showing the flights out of Brussels is interesting (it almost makes Brussels a base, in the same way as easyJet which has many destinations from BRU, but no aircraft based!).

BRU-LCA was opened for tender by the Government of Cyprus, and no one offered the right conditions. Ryanair eventually offered a twice weekly frequency and is the only airline serving the route, without the subsidies of the Cyprus Gov't. Competition from Blue Air will be welcome.

BRU-CTA is mostly a seasonal holiday route. It is currently flown by one weekly flight of each Brussels Airlines and Jetairfly. There is room for additional service.

The 3 routes to Romania look like more natural destinations. I hope they will be successful.
André
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Re: Blue Air - the succesfull unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by sean1982 »

cathay belgium wrote:Hi,

CTA direct ? Don't think so,..
Blue Air, nice fares, worn out planes, safety rules are optional , didn't dim the lights during landing two weeks ago !
Try to avoid it now, if booked in advance TAROM is as much more value for money !
Is there any official place were to report the lack of safety here ? As I report this issue to Blue Air still no answer in my mailbox :/

CXB
Strong allegations. Was it a day time or night time landing? Which other "optional safety rules" did you observe?

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Re: Blue Air - the successful unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by cathay belgium »

Hi,

Offcourse it was a night landing, two weeks ago ,.. Landing in OTP, around 2230 0B124 ,..
Guess this one is more then enough to avoid them in the future!
;)

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Re: Blue Air - the succesfull unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by Klausenburg »

sean1982 wrote: Which other "optional safety rules" did you observe?
They made a fire of woods in the cabin to heat the sandwiches, the passengers were allowed to smoke , the pilot drank openly a few glasses of plum brandy before landing, and so on :D

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Re: Blue Air - the successful unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by cathay belgium »

Hi,

None of this all LOL, but I guess if so they couldn't care less :)
Why not ? A photo of a holy person , an orthodox icon, was hung above the airplane door on the right ! No pics allowed .... guess holy photos don't like being shot on photo haha...
Never saw this before !

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Re: Blue Air - the successful unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by Klausenburg »

@cathay belgium, with all due respect, if the safety rules would have been "optional" on BMS flights, The Civilian Aeronautical Authority (CAA) of Romania, would have been "assaulted" with loads of complains and they would have lost their flying license already. But this never happened. Also, it is the first time when I hear that BMS allegedly had "ignored safety rules". The Romanian press cannot wait to make public stories like this, and still nothing (otherwise, each time a plane is delayed the press don't miss it - they would LOVE to have a story about "safety issues", but they don't have, at least until now). Also, as you and everybody knows, EU has the most strict rules and protocols regarding flight safety in the entire world. If a company would treat them as "optional" , then that company would be banned from flying, as it is the case with the companies on the "black list". Not to mention that BMS is an airline member of IATA, which even RYR is not.

About the situation you mentioned I won't make any comment. However I will provide you the contact details for CAA Romania. Their website is: http://www.caa.ro/ On the website they offer the possibility to "voluntary report" . Also, the E-mail of the Director of Safety Department is andrei.filipoiu@caa.ro Also, the phone number for the Safety Department is +40 21 208 15 08.

Tarom offers indeed better value for money. Is one of the last airlines in Europe which offers real food on board. Also sometimes the ticket prices are even better then on LCC carriers. But while BMS as an ongoing process of refurbishing the interiors of the planes and the replacement of seats with new Recaro ones, some planes of ROT are already old and no refurbishment is planned (I'm speaking about Boeing 733, almost 20 years old). A318, indeed are newer and fresher, but there are only a few in the fleet. Also, lately, Tarom has almost daily delays lately. Because 3 planes are grounded (2 A310 wide bodies that will go to scrap and another one) and nothing came as a replacement, the feet is streched to maxim, and any technical issue transforms into delays. Unfortunately, ROT is having more delays than the LCC competition, and no new aircraft will come until next year (political issues - the company still has a pile of cash, the money for either wet or dry lease are there, but it's more complicated). I really hope Tarom will manage to survive and thrive, but being state owned and the target for many interest, it could soon join Sabena and Malev, even if it has funds to survive a few more years of loses (last year the lose was ~9 milion Euro). There is also a Belgian connection with Tarom too. The former manager for four years was Christian Heinzman (Belgian, former CEO of Luxair). He was trying his best to reform the company in an environment of pressure from political side and other interets, and managed to greatly reduce the loses. His target for this year was to break even...But he was fired with less then one year until the end of his contract. He attacked the decision in justice, and is possible that the company will have to pay him all the salaries he lost and interest... Since he's gone, the mood is not very optimistic. We don't know if the competent and hones people will prevail, or the others will manage bring it to the grave...

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Re: Blue Air - the successful unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by cathay belgium »

Hi,

I can only report what I have expierced, nothing less nothing more.
Thx for the info... I will inform them of what happend,...

About TAROM..
I heard about a proposal of airbus a hear ago that all atr42 would be transferred in atr72 and the whole boeing and a318 fleet would be transfered to a319/320 with the help.of airbus itself ?
Still rumours ? of phantasy ? Tarom has indeed a great product and fares!

About BlueAir..
Booming business indeed,great fares,good food if paid, but in fact I noticed a big difference !
Not dimming the lights during a nightlanding is one, rude and not helpful crew another, plane itself was indeed worn out, dark yellow plastics, old seats with new red head rest paper, dirty seats,..
Hope they improve soon, product can be good but for now to avoid !
Maybe IATA but Ryanair is thousand times more professional ! blue Air is like a great idea of students without funds to get the ideas paid !

But evrybody must and can choose for thelselves ...

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Re: Blue Air - the successful unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by Sai »

Why would you conclude this is a Belgian Airline?
Are the aircraft flying on a Belgian AOC or OO-registered. Is their registered office in Belgium? :?
I don't understand

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Re: Blue Air - the successful unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by sn26567 »

Sai wrote:Why would you conclude this is a Belgian Airline?
Are the aircraft flying on a Belgian AOC or OO-registered. Is their registered office in Belgium? :?
I don't understand
It is the same situation as with ASL Aviation Group, which is almost entirely Belgian-owned, but has aircraft registered in a handful of countries: Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, France, ... and also Belgium.
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Re: Blue Air - the successful unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by sn26567 »

New route for Blue Air: Brussels - Constanta on Friday's from 19 May!
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Re: Blue Air - the successful unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by sn26567 »

sn26567 wrote: 15 Feb 2017, 16:17 New route for Blue Air: Brussels - Constanta on Friday's from 19 May!
https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/blue-ai ... mmer-2017/
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Re: Blue Air - the successful unknown "Belgian" (well, sort of...) airline

Post by sn26567 »

Blue Air launches new route from Bucharest to Helsinki:

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/blue-ai ... bucharest/
André
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