Lufthansa buys the remaining 55% of Brussels Airlines

[Passenger]

any idea on when to expect something (press release or whatever)?

I expect a final decision on Airberlin late today = a partial take over of their fleet, going to Eurowings.

I expect that a final decision on Brussels Airlines will be postponed. The sole purpose of Eurowings is to compete against Ryanair and Easyjet, and Brussels Airlines is doing that already in Belgium with its hybrid business model.

[Freken]

Lufthansa Supervisory Board approves full acquisition of Brussels Airlines.

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/brussel ... -airlines/

[Bralo20]

Still curious on the details...

[sean1982]

Alea iacta est

[sn26567]

The details on how the Belgian shareholders will be indemnified remain unknown...

But at least there is hope: "It remains the common objective of Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines to conduct the full acquisition of SN Airholding by Deutsche Lufthansa AG after the final agreement on the modalities of the exercise of the call option with the SN Airholding shareholders by the end of this year"...

I think that the threat of a court action has had some effect on Carsten Spohr's team.

[sn26567]

According to deredactie.be the name will stay the same. I do hope they keep the name.

Indeed, in the press release there is not one word about Eurowings!

[Freken]

Steven Decraene (VRT journalist) posted some more information on his Twitter account. According to him, the Brussels Airlines brand will not go away, and the hub and airline will be developed further. Similar to Swiss and Austrian.

Wait and see!

[Conti764]

I don't like it, but it was expected. A few years ago we would have been happy if they'd bought it all. But after the changes the last years and the profit they made they could have stayed working as stand-alone.

According to deredactie.be the name will stay the same. I do hope they keep the name.

Although I have always been in favor of another scenario (IAG/Oneworld) I highly doubt SN would have had much chance as a stand alone carrier. We should not forget the loan LH granted SN in dire times. It could have been game over back then already...

About this takeover. Whatever they say now doesn't mean much on the longer term. Once LH is in full control of SN they could still decide to integrate the company into Eurowings. However, if they are seriously investing in SN as it is today, retaining the brand and structure of the company, we should see some steps being taken in the near future (leasing or shifting newer l/h equipment to SN or even order brand new ones, new routes,...)

If they allow SN to continue growing as it did in the past few years, turning higher profits year after year (thus having the need for more efficient equipment) we might be pretty sure LH means serious business. If not, you can bet they have something else in the pipeline.

[Yuqu12]

I don't like it, but it was expected. A few years ago we would have been happy if they'd bought it all. But after the changes the last years and the profit they made they could have stayed working as stand-alone.

According to deredactie.be the name will stay the same. I do hope they keep the name.

Although I have always been in favor of another scenario (IAG/Oneworld) I highly doubt SN would have had much chance as a stand alone carrier. We should not forget the loan LH granted SN in dire times. It could have been game over back then already...

About this takeover. Whatever they say now doesn't mean much on the longer term. Once LH is in full control of SN they could still decide to integrate the company into Eurowings. However, if they are seriously investing in SN as it is today, retaining the brand and structure of the company, we should see some steps being taken in the near future (leasing or shifting newer l/h equipment to SN or even order brand new ones, new routes,...)

If they allow SN to continue growing as it did in the past few years, turning higher profits year after year (thus having the need for more efficient equipment) we might be pretty sure LH means serious business. If not, you can bet they have something else in the pipeline.

Did LH invest in Austrian and Swiss then? I don't know so much about the investment of LH in austrian and swiss. But if Sn can keep the good results coming and LH would invest in SN, it shoud be pretty nice.

[sn26567]

Did LH invest in Austrian and Swiss then? I don't know so much about the investment of LH in austrian and swiss. But if Sn can keep the good results coming and LH would invest in SN, it shoud be pretty nice.

LH did invest a lot in Swiss: new Boeing 777 fleet for long-haul, new CS100 and CS300 fleet for short-haul for example. Maybe less in Austrian: transfer of the modern LH E190s to replace ageing Fokker 70 and 100 aircraft.

[Yuqu12]

Did LH invest in Austrian and Swiss then? I don't know so much about the investment of LH in austrian and swiss. But if Sn can keep the good results coming and LH would invest in SN, it shoud be pretty nice.

LH did invest a lot in Swiss: new Boeing 777 fleet for long-haul, new CS100 and CS300 fleet for short-haul for example. Maybe less in Austrian: transfer of the modern LH E190s to replace ageing Fokker 70 and 100 aircraft.

That is pretty decent indeed if they are going to leave SN SN, I hope personally for an A350 for long haul

[sn26567]

And here is the reaction of Brussels Airlines:

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/brussel ... ll-option/

[Inquirer]

Just saw on the news Lufthansa is finally going to take over B.air in full.
Reading their supervisory board to have approved this strategic step in principle while still working on a mutual agreement with the current shareholders indeed shows they are quite reconciliatory.
Also, if indeed they intend to deliver on what they have said to, today, then this is very good news.
B.air have really hit the sweet spot in the medium haul market with their hybrid business model on Europe, while their niche intercontinental routes are also very unique: the only thing withholding them to grow even faster was a critical lack of investment. Combine a financially powerful shareholder with a good business model and there's no reason why they couldn't say double in size in a few years.
Fingers crossed for some exciting new developments in the coming months, as further operational details are made public. I suppose one of the firsts acts will be the financing of the replacement and expansion of the fleet of Airbus 330, where a decision was due by the end of this year?

[sean1982]

SN is nothing more or less to LH than what Vueling is to IAG, with that difference that LH already HAD that with eurowings. It would be highly unprofitable for them to run the same business model under different brands. Therefore we already see in the other airlines that they owe a slow but steady morph into the eurowings brand. The fact that SN's long haul business is fairly small (compared to austrian and swiss for example) doesnt help.

My prediction is that the LH divison in time will be dismantled and the LH division will move to FRA, with BRU being left with a lot of codeshares into LH LH destinations, like what Vueling does with IAG.

This is the sad economic reality of today

[Inquirer]

I think if one wants to compare B.air to an IAG company, it would be Air Lingus rather than Vueling, because of the very similar hybrid product as well as the fact of it having intercontinental routes.
Don't know if IAG has the intention of merging the 2, but I doubt it?
Time will tell, but I am not pessimistic about this take over at all as I can see loads of problems in the simplistic scenario you push here Sean, not just on the rather one-legged comparison but also notably on the legal status of moving the core African routes to another place outside of Belgium for instance.
Anyway, change always means opportunity and the full takeover does come with that to a degree we haven't seen in Belgian aviation for 15 years. There's only so much we could expect from a stand alone B.air when it comes to fleet and network expansion, but from a Lufthansa owned B.air, who knows?
Money is no longer such an game stopping issue in future.

[Klausenburg]

Is there any official source regarding the keeping of Brussels Airlines name, at least for the moment ?

[Yuqu12]

Is there any official source regarding the keeping of Brussels Airlines name, at least for the moment ?

Yes and no. No in the sense that they didn't speak about it, yes in the sense that SN stated they will negiotiate about keeping their name and brand and business model.

[Passenger]

SN is nothing more or less to LH than what Vueling is to IAG, with that difference that LH already HAD that with eurowings. It would be highly unprofitable for them to run the same business model under different brands. Therefore we already see in the other airlines that they owe a slow but steady morph into the eurowings brand. The fact that SN's long haul business is fairly small (compared to austrian and swiss for example) doesnt help.

In no way, Brussels Airlines <-> Lufthansa can be compared to Vueling <-> IAG. Vueling is a low cost, whilst Brussels Airlines is a hybrid airline: combined clientele, combined operations, combined tariffs. And because you brought up Vueling: maybe you can suggest your employer (IAG/BA) to intervene at Vueling? Their summer schedule was a disgrace for the aviation industry: cancelled flights because no aircraft and/or no crew was avialable, causing lots of delayed flights every single day, which even led to an intervention by the Spanish CAA.

My prediction is that the LH divison in time will be dismantled and the LH division will move to FRA, with BRU being left with a lot of codeshares into LH LH destinations, like what Vueling does with IAG. This is the sad economic reality of today

Your prediction is noted. But I disagree. Contrary to Vueling, Brussels Airlines realizes what Lufthansa hoped they would do: to compete against Ryanair. Remember the hostile statements from O'Leary in 2013: "...Brussels Airlines, we'll crush you. You can't compete to us. If you lower your prices, we'll do the same. You are a lilliputter. Move to another airport, we're gonna take over Brussels Airport..." Three years later, Brussels Airlines still is the leading carrier at Brussels Airport, with Ryanair having 7 or 8%. O'Leary's Veni vidi vici became Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae.

[sean1982]

This reply is exactly why I stopped posting in the first place. My post has NOTHING to do with my current employer BA or Ryanair yet you manage to write a response about it. I work for BA and manage Cabin crew, not for its parent company.

Besides the fact that Vueling does not do long haul ops it is exactly what SN does. It carries a mix of customers on codeshares with IB and BA. Mixed routes, mixed clientèle, mixed operations.

PS:

Three years later, Brussels Airlines still is the leading carrier at Brussels Airport, with Ryanair having 7 or 8%. O'Leary's Veni vidi vici became Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae.

That is very Donald Trump way of looking at a competitor that has almost as big a market share in Belgium as SN, not to mention seriously underestimating their slow but continuous growth

[Klausenburg]

On the other side, DLH might use SN to inject some fresh blood into not-astonishing-succesful Eurowings. I mean, key people from SN will be deployed to Eurowings, also some procedures will be molded on SN model, and so on, but the BRU hub, and the name might go... In the end, after having 100% of shares, DLH will be able to change any previous agreement...