The Brussels Airlines press conference of 30 January 2014

[convair]

-WAW was dropped because it was not profitable. Now they're going back, allbeit this time with larger aircraft.
I think that Warsaw was one of those routes that they shouldn't have stopped operating, but I also think that a daily A319/A320 isn't the way to do it, given the amount of competition on this route.

WAW will be operated by AR1.

And twice daily as you reported André!

[rhigginson]

Will WAW and KRK be code-shared with LOT? and what about ATH with Aegaen?

[sn-remember]

@RoMax ..
Ok the leisure market has importance .. I do not dispute that ..
However the business market is also a key target to most legacy airlines.
Now they add some extra leisure routes (to the Mediterranea mostly) during the summer time, as I said it's natural.
But why this timidity towards l/hs ?
Similarly to s/hauls, the long haul market is boosted during summer time , with significant additional capacity offered by most carriers. Obviously it was the right time to introduce/reinforce new/existing l/h routes. I will never understand the way SN is managed, or rather as Air Key West explains it too well :
"it shows again that b.air's management(and shareholders including LH) are too slow and without a vision (yes, I dare to say that LH has no clear vision AT THE MOMENT for b.air). "

[DannyVDB]

Hi all,

I do not share the pessimism of some on the forum.

Of course, there will be competition, but I think
1) It will generate additional traffic: e.g. we already decided with the familly to add an additional trip ...
2) Even if some of the destinations are in the south, they are surely not all only leisure destinations: e.g. Malta (capital of one of the Member States with quite some traffic EC/Maltese government/admin); Bari (several ICT companies, we have e.g. a project where partners found it difficult to come to Brussels/leuven for meetings); Sevilla (part of EC JRC is in the city, e.g. we have a big standardisation meeting in Seville, conferences, ...); ... These are not like Ibiza
3) It is an important growth scenario, 400.000 seats is a lot; but integrated in a careful way (many small pieces and extensions)
4) Probably they are in cooperation with STAR alliance and other partners, travel agencies, ...

Cheers,
Danny

[b720]

I agree with Danny, someof those destination are not pure leisure, besides it is a logical
Shift of interest during the slower summer months on traditional business destinations.
Code sharing with star, and contracts with travel agencies should fill up those seats.
Again, as someone said earlier, that LCc often have their brand recognition and their clients
Who would not even bother look elsewhere before booking a flight, SN has its "guests" too..
Some of whom would not book LCc even if the price is lower. There is room for both models
Out f brussels airport. I think that this summer will be a good one for SN. Thy already started
Adapting their fares with the introduction of the passes. Excellent, I used them myself..very easy
To use, and extremely flexible and cheap! Add to that 750 miles per segment. Another innovation
Was the X Mas vouchers. Very cheap, flexible, no name attached, easy to redeem and last almost 6
Months! Beats all LCC .. Almost everyone I know bought a few, met cases creating unplanned trips! Hence
Extra pax..now they plan the valentine's voucher.. A great way to fill in the till with fast cash!

[shockcooling]

I think you can compare their plan to that of Aer Lingus. They fly next to Lcc with similar product and destinations (leisure+business) and their longhaul looks not too bad.
Me thinks it's a good example how both airlines can fly next to each other...

[airazurxtror]

I think you can compare their plan to that of Aer Lingus. They fly next to Lcc with similar product and destinations (leisure+business) and their longhaul looks not too bad.
Me thinks it's a good example how both airlines can fly next to each other...

Keeping in mind that Ryanair owns nearly 30 % of Aer Lingus shares.

[RoMax]

Keeping in mind that Ryanair owns nearly 30 % of Aer Lingus shares.

Which has basicly no influence on the way Aer Lingus is managed (they don't want FR as a shareholder and that's not my opinion, that's based on statements of the management and the Irish Government). And FR on the other hand is not holding back on head-on competition with EI because of that share they have in EI, on the contrary, they have tried for years to make Aer Lingus as weak as possible to be able to take them over completely in which they didn't succeed due to EU refusing it.

[Air Key West]

have just seen Mr Gustin on the RTBF news.
I don't doubt that Mr Gustin's press conference was most interesting for those who were there - but on the TV, it's appalling.
With all due respect, he should hire a coach to teach him how to dress,

Gustin wanted to imitate MOL.

[airazurxtror]

Gustin wanted to imitate MOL.

If so, he missed the mark, and by far.

[sn26567]

Will WAW and KRK be code-shared with LOT? and what about ATH with Aegaen?

... and MLA with Air Malta?

I asked the question to B. Gustin. He answered that he was discussing the issue with his Star partners. It is already sure that ATH will be codeshared with Aegean.

[AirOpinion]

Come on guys let's be fair about this press conference...

Mainly they were selling air. Spreading it over 3 days to attrack as much as attention possible.
- Most of the new destinations are relaunches. And then I'm not even talking about codeshares/partnerships...
- They talk about ongoing projects but nothing specific... except for the new lounges. Wich was probably necessary only to keep up with standard comfort levels.
- Services à la carte are a good idea in theory but think of what an organizational structure they would need to keep up with their promises. This would also require the same service level from their partners (handling/catering) but on the other side they want to reduces operational costs...
- There fleet renewal was already ongoing since years.
- The Tomorrowland flights probably cost them more then they will gain from it. They double the amount of flights but as you know Tomorrowland will run over two weekends.
- They claim to offer 60 extra jobs... but those are all temporary.

I'm not really falling for this show...

[crew1990]

They recruit on temporary contract, but the people on temporary contract take the place of the one of the previous year, while them get a full contract. It´s normall to me that SN doesńt offer a full contract straight away. Air France, Lufthansa and many other airline do it this way, but they do create jobs!

[fcw]

"De TIJD" is sceptical as well: "Brussels Airlines: now or never again".
They are not impressed by Mr G, to say the least.

I also read (Standard, I think) that IAD is underperforming and they are thinking to reschedule it to the morning.
For those who think BruAir should expand longhaul: they are burning over 100.000€/ day on long haul!

[fcw]

They recruit on temporary contract, but the people on temporary contract take the place of the one of the previous year, while them get a full contract. It´s normall to me that SN doesńt offer a full contract straight away. Air France, Lufthansa and many other airline do it this way, but they do create jobs!

Contractair is offering summer only jobs with BruAir for the next 3/4 years.
Conditions not too bad though: captains 8500 gross/month+ hotel whilst in Bru.

[Flanker2]

For those who think BruAir should expand longhaul: they are burning over 100.000€/ day on long haul!

Well, yes because it wasn't me who pushed them to fly to North America. I gave them the benefit of the doubt for IAD but in the end, the results speak for themselves...

So if expanding longhaul for SN means adding BOS or SFO... then yeah, better steer far away from expanding longhaul.

If however, it means adding HND, HKG, SIN, other Chinese destinations like maybe CAN/SZX and more Africa, it's a different story. The Europe-Asia traffic alone will be significant, but this way they can counter TK's turf, ie Asia-Africa. How long have me and several others been saying this... I don't understand why it was so necessary to open North America as "Africa feed", when even with this "feed", they are losing ground in Africa. IMO this "feed" was a waste of time, energy and money.

[cnc]

because on NA they are part of a venture, less risks but almost no chance to make good money out of it either.
main reason for doing it is because it adds profitibility to other routes.
somehow i also think the prestige level of having such routes got in their heads too much since its not like they had A330's to spare

[Flanker2]

I must add that the article on De Tijd paints the real picture of SN's financial evolution over the past years.
The article writer also paints a good picture of the hard reality of SN's aging RJ fleet and the best options to replace them... which in SN's case are turboprops... it's not a question of comfortable, not comfortable, it's a matter of how to beat the competition.

They missed last year's targets by a huge leap. Even me as a complete outsider came with a result much closer, which says a lot not about me but the lack of realism that those targets were founded on.

With the arrival of FR and VY in 2014, the break-even/profit they were going for is wiped off, I just pray for them that they don't make themselves ridiculous by holding on to this target.

One positive aspect that we are missing in this discussion is that SN finally finally finally realised that they need to start targeting family travel aggressively. If they can put a lot of focus on that, it can help them a lot, because family travel is 3-6 seats in one go each time.

[FlightMate]

About fleet renewal in Europe, and turboprops: I recently flew American Eagle in a crj, and man, that was crap.
So I'm starting to change my mind about tiny planes to replace the RJs. If seat pitch is reasonable, why not. But if that means sitting like a sardine for hours, no way José.
On the other hand, if there's no other choice, why not.
But now, competing with FR, the planes need to be as good as them (saying that, I've never flown FR, so maybe it's not as comfortable as I think it is).
The RJs were (and still are) very comfortable.

About the CEO's style. Clearly it seems he wanted to show he is part of a young, cool company, like FR.
From other pictures I've seen from him, he was always properly, smartly dressed. except for this press conference

The press conference was just free advertisement. So, why not...

I agree with others that Long haul should have been the main recipient of the 100m euros. Specially as Europe is doing ok and long haul is now losing money. Time to revert back to profit? Or will they just let it slip further?
Newer and additional A330 (or 787 ), means less disruption (they could more easily switch aircraft, and will have less maintenance problems, and cost), better fuel efficiency.

[RoMax]

"De TIJD" is sceptical as well: "Brussels Airlines: now or never again".
They are not impressed by Mr G, to say the least.

In that article (which was written before the announcements of this week) I don't see that much elements that are directly against Gustin, rathar against the overall current situation of SN without mentioning any significant elements that are new to us. The high range of high management switches are said to be Gustin's fault...I doubt this. It's LH that pushed for the Germans in the core team of the management and Peter Kranich was never intended to stay forever, he was ment to deliver his knowledge followed by a smaller management team with the operational leading at a lower level (with Gustin taking the legal responsibility, which is a must as a COO normally is an obliged function). And when I look at that to-do list, I see quite some things that were actually announced this week: removal of Avro fleet, answer to Ryanair offer, a focus which also points at Europe and not just Africa.

The comment about the turboprops is in my opinion (and I'm not used to that when reading De Tijd) very shortsighted. Yes based on fuel and maintenance costs the turboprops are the lowest, but SN proved that they can generate a significant cost reduction by using larger aircraft and increasing their utilisation. Which also allows them to grow without adding extra aircraft. Besides that turboprops have other disadvantages that have been mentionned numerous times on this forum already.

Now SN did these major announcements, De Tijd made Mr Gustin "M/V van de week" (man/woman of the week), but I can not read this article so I don't know how positive or negative it is.
http://www.tijd.be/nieuws/archief/M_V_v ... 20Airlines