Big problems at SN Brussels Airlines!

[teddybAIR]

2006 will be a year to fill to planes with a lot of pax. SNBA will fight against Ryanair with very agressive prices.

I don't like the sound of that...SNBA is a full service airline and not a budget flyer. By trying to do both of them, they'll lose their clear positioning and be "stuck in the middle". I'll never forget the wise words of my professor strategic marketing: Strategy is about knowing what NOT to do" It means that if an airline chooses to be full service, it should NOT try to compete on price. The obvious reason for this is that other airlines have a better cost structure, and can't thus be beaten on price by SNBA.

I hope they will be cautious with what's left of our national pride!

bAIR

[Avro]

SN should focus on the business pax. They need to fill the C cabin. When you fly within europe the C class will hardly be filled on their planes (at least those that I flew). While on other carriers the C class is filled !!!

This is the part of the plane they should fill

Chris

[Atlantis]

When SNBA ops charters they don't have to search for pax because they get them via touroperators, in that case the planes are full.

On the other hand for their own scheduled flights they have to take some action. A pax load of 55% is bad. They admitted it that if they will fill their planes they are a small competitor for Virgin Express. But that's indeed a very small percentage, some flights of SNBA are gone and were took over by Virgin. The last couple of weeks Virgin Express will buy some seats on some SNBA planes. So, in that way they fill each other planes.

The main goal of SNBA is to give a full service, if they can give it against lower prices that's the problem of SNBA. If they will fight against Ryanair, that's their right.

If they can't fill biz class on European routes they have to take some action on that.

So, we have to believe that they know what they are doing and we will see what 2006 will bring.

[sn26567]

SN should focus on the business pax. They need to fill the C cabin.

I agree with you that I seldom see more than a couple of passengers in C class (except perhaps to Geneva: Switzerland is rich!). But that is why most airlines have a flexible C cabin, from 2 to 22 rows or more. At SN it is usually 3 rows. At LH (the morning flight to Frankfurt), it is rather 20.

[DannyVDB]

Hi all

I agree that they should try to work on business class. I think they should lower their prices. I used them several times in C-class (African and EU). But when prices are above 700 EUR for a short EU return flight, it is too much (and now often it is far above this treshhold). If it would be around 650 EUR, I would probably take more often a C-class ticket (for several reasons).

On the other hand, don't overestimate the other airliners. I once flew LH from Berlin to Munich and there was no other option then flying in business (the one legg costed 'only' 250 EURO - compare to SNBA). In that way it is not so difficult to fill business class in your planes. Also on Frankfurt to Brussels leg they apply this principles sometimes. Also, in some cases business class passengers are upgraded economy passengers since some flights are always full and overbooked (especially with the bigger companies).

Danny

[teddybAIR]

They have yield managers for this kind of thinking!

Last year, we saw how an airline manages it's seats on airplanes:

Suppose a flight has one seat left in bussiness and in last instance a passenger shows up, saying that he really needs to get that flight. What will a yield managing airline do? Well, they'll sell an economy seat at a bussiness fare (customer is happy as he makes the flight he really had to catch). Thus, they put the passenger in economy class! Next, they will search for a frequent flyer amongst the passengers that are flying economy. Upon finding the most loyal customer, they will adress him, saying that he is upgraded to business class because of his loyalty to the airline (customer is happy as he is rewarded for his behaviour). Result, the airline gains threefold: they sell an economy seat at business fares, the late customer is happy as the airline could help him, the economy passenger is happy and will fly the airline again.

Just a small example of how things (are supposed to) work in a good yield managing airline

bAIR

[airazurxtror]

An SNBA passenger tells an interesting story in the belgian magazine "Test-Achats" n°494, january 2006, page 53.
Himself and other customers waiting to take the flight Firenze-Brussels (exact date not given) were told that the flight was cancelled due to meteorological reasons.
According to him, they got no help whatsoever from SNBA.
It took quite a long time and they had to give a lot of phone calls before being given a reservation on the next flight to Brussels, the following day.
As regard the accomodation for the night, they were flatly told it was their problem, not SNBA's.
And when they eventually landed in Brussels, the next day, they found that their luggage had been left in Firenze.
It thus seems that SNBA is leaning towards the low-cost system, unfortunately keeping high-cost fares...

[Airbus330lover]

An SNBA passenger tells an interesting story in the belgian magazine "Test-Achats" n°494, january 2006, page 53.
Himself and other customers waiting to take the flight Firenze-Brussels (exact date not given) were told that the flight was cancelled due to meteorological reasons.
According to him, they got no help whatsoever from SNBA.
It took quite a long time and they had to give a lot of phone calls before being given a reservation on the next flight to Brussels, the following day.
As regard the accomodation for the night, they were flatly told it was their problem, not SNBA's.
And when they eventually landed in Brussels, the next day, they found that their luggage had been left in Firenze.
It thus seems that SNBA is leaning towards the low-cost system, unfortunately keeping high-cost fares...

I was on flight 5 after bankruptcy of SABENA
I flew regular on SNBA after this date.
I never has such a problem. Once the flight was cancelled, i has full help from the staff of SNBA.
FYI flight to MRS, LIS, GVA, VCE, including Firenze.
So be careful when you made such a statement

[FlightSimCrew]

Airbuslover, I agree, every passenger who flies regularly has had a bad experience before...and its never with an airline in specific... You cannot please very passenger because there are too many different personalities out there..
Our joint (fullservce and lcc) companies have found a good approach towards their segments but I beleive its now time to put these together. No airline can survice on leisure (seasonal traffic) alone and no business airline can survive on C-pax alone ! Obvious isnt it..

[GORKI]

Indeed,

And please,it is not because you get a bad handling experience you have to say that snba is heading towards a low cost attitude...
The experiences of the example can indeed happen with any airline..I had it with Alitalia few times...
by the way SNBA wants to become more low-cost minded,ticket price wise but then they should realise to be more low-cost in all other aspects of aviation as well!