brussels airlines to New York!

[laexsn]

According to the US Bureau of Transportation statistics, the average load factor for international (foreign) airlines operating to/from the US is 81.5%. US carriers routinely score higher. If SN cannot do better than a 70% LF (in a peak transatlantic travel month), it is indeed VERY worrisome.
Other than a few UA operated PS flights (to SFO and LAX from terminal 7, not conveniently reached from SN's terminal 1), there is no Star Alliance feeder traffic from JFK. Feeder traffic obviously reduces SN's yield, reason for which DEN would be a bad alternative choice as suggested here (FI started DEN-REK). Good luck to SN to vy for Africa traffic out of the US with DL operating DKR and ACC from JFK, LOS and ACC from ATL, ET to ADD from IAD, Oil traffic out of IAH to the persian gulf and onwards on UA, QF and EK. TK, KL, AF, etc all with many US gateways and frequencies will give SN a run for their (Africa) money. Corporate US originating traffic is locked in by US carriers; and pharmaceutical traffic to BRU prefers to fly out of EWR. Sabena's successful transatlantic flights were ATL and CVG (CVG only because of Chiquita Brands and P&G front cabin point to point traffic with Delta's help). SN's marketing efforts for the new JFK flight: handing out chocolates at Grand Central in NYC and 3 (poorly designed and worded) pages in the June issue of Business Traveler USA. Doubtful money can be made on this flight.

[DeltaWiskey]

You all need to look more on the brighter side imo... Remember most international routes (and certainly long haul) aren't profitable in the first, or even two, year of operations.

I think booking numbers look reasonably, for august they already sold 50% of the seats, 2,5 months in advance and even before first flight of the route. Of course we don't know anything about yield, the highest yielding passengers only book weeks (or often days) in advance. So give SN some credit instead of taking them down so fast...

I get the impression most people here want to see SN fail instead of succeed. I still wonder why...

[WC_EEND]

For those who are interested, SN501 is currently above the North Sea heading towards the UK. a/c operating is OO-SFW

[papysn]

Hi,
I must admit i'm impressed by the new uniforms,and by the idea of creating some kind of "buzz" by giving it only to a limited number of staff,Good idea at a limited cost.
Now the problem of Bruair remain the same,no long or middle term vision... They just want to survive till LH comes and save them... that's a very bad idea to me!!!

The flight to/from NYC (in the morning) is also a bad idea for me,and despite the reasonable bookings for this summer,it doesn't mean a reasonnable yield!!!

Regards.

K.

[convair]

Hello Brubiac,

It was supposed to be SFM, with the touchscreens... What went wrong? Not a tech problem since it is now flying to Douala.

BTW, despite all the fuss about new SN 501, flightradar24 is not "able" to identify it as a flight to JFK!

[Zorba]

BTW, despite all the fuss about new SN 501, flightradar24 is not "able" to identify it as a flight to JFK!

Who cares? I already reported it (guess I'm not the only one) so it will be corrected in a few days.

[BrightCedars]

contrary to 'normal' passengers...

You ought to mean passengers from other regions or continents.

[convair]

BTW, despite all the fuss about new SN 501, flightradar24 is not "able" to identify it as a flight to JFK!

Who cares? I already reported it (guess I'm not the only one) so it will be corrected in a few days.

Apparently you do...Thanks

[ihd-fc]

Dear

OOSFW was the first aircraft with retrofit. Both OOSFM and OOSFW are with new cabin and IFE.

So all pax to/from JFK will enjoy this new product.

OOSFM was normally planned, but as it had some problems with IFE yesterday, they used OOSFW. In the meantime IFE OOSFM is working again.

DLA/NSI and JFK are priority destinations for new cabin.

Gr

[convair]

Thank you ihd-fc !

I knew about SFW retrofit but someone here had mentioned it did not have the touchscreens that SFM has.

BTW, why priority for DLA/NSI ?

[WC_EEND]

I would have expected FIH to have priority as well actually

[taz001]

I guess it has something to do with the fact they took over the flights to Cameroon from Swiss. They need the new cabin in order to give Swiss passengers a similar product.

Anyway, good luck to SN with their JFK flight. I will certain consider taking them if I need to be there, but I prefer to avoid JFK (very limited star connections) and New York has never been my favorite destination. I believe it is overrated when compared with other cities in the USA.

[tolipanebas]

Pictures of the first flight ceremony can be found at:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150833471416644.398307.148064996643&type=3

Load was 250 pax....

[WC_EEND]

JFK Airport website lists it as landed 10 mins ago

[ihd-fc]

Hello

After JFK Cameroon is the biggest challenge for SN in 2012. LX stopped operations in Cameroon and SN did a big increase of frequencies (+2 for DLA, +3 for NSI).

As SN wants to keep the costumers of LX (and not let them leave to AF/QC/ET/KQ), it is important to have a good service, product,etc... > That is why the new cabin has priority on Cameroon, but also that is why city offices have been renovated and new staff set-up is done, both in NSI and DLA.

ihd-fc

[Zorba]

For those interested, I recorded JFK TWR frequency with BEL501 landing.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4205503/SN501%2 ... 202012.wav Only the first minute and last 2 minutes

[andorra-airport]

Arrival @ JFK:

http://twitter.com/Stijn_Verbeeck/statu ... 88/photo/1

[WC_EEND]

For those interested, I recorded JFK TWR frequency with BEL501 landing.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4205503/SN501%2 ... 202012.wav Only the first minute and last 2 minutes

Thanks

[Bralo20]

I've just arrived at my hotel... Yes, that's right, at this moment I just stepped into my room after arriving nearly 8 hours ago!

I've written a tripreport that exceeds 3 pages and I'm going to post it probably tomorrow on several sites. Let me say I have mixed feelings about this. The flight was great, it couldn't be better but I've made some remarks.

About JFK I can be very very short... Never ever again will I use JFK as my port of entry to the USA. To bad for SN since the flight was great but JFK screwed things up big big time... Next flights will be to or via IAD but certainly not JFK... Unless SN offers connections so I can use the fast track. But 3 hours to pass immigrations is waaaay to much... We arrived a bit after noon and I left JFK past 3 this noon and if JFK wouldn't have taken action in the end I'm guessing we would be still waiting...

Anyway, I'm going to take a shower and visit a restaurant to grab a bite. I'll post the full report tomorrow.

[Passenger]

Btw: Am I the only one who doesn't think that the new uniforms are "young, trendy and stylish"?
Stylish yes but young and trendy certainly not. Maybe rather plain boring old fashioned yet stylish maybe?

No, you are not the only one.
According to a member of my family who works in the "fashion" sector, only the foulard is good - the red uniform is out of trend, the dark stockings are ugly, the shoes also, the hat is ridiculous and the bag is terrible - the dark uniform being more acceptable. She asked : who is the culprit ?
And, when you show new uniforms to the press and televison, the least you can do is to hire professional models to wear them. Not amateurs ...

The uniform has been designed by xandres ( http://www.xandres.be), an established belgian fashion house. But even if it would have been designed by Ralph Lauren or Louis Vuitton, we would read the same remarks here. Because it's Brussels Airlines.

http://corporate.brusselsairlines.com/en_be/corp/news/press-releases/Default.aspx?id=29209