Brussels Airlines joining Star Alliance in December 2009

[tolipanebas]

About the ceremony in the town hall of Brussels:
although I was hoping for some more news on the future plans of SN, I'd say that all in all it was about what could be expected from a formal joining ceremony; key speakers took the word and said all the right things about SN, STAR and LH, but nothing more.

Nothing spectacular indeed, but still, it needed to be said so as to remove any remaining doubt about the new status of SN and BRU within the STAR alliance. Some snibblets of news slipped through though, like the fact there is apparently a codeshare with OS in the pipeline for JAN, but all in all, it was mostly a demonstration of good intentions, a resumé of historic facts and a declamation of figures to impress the neutral audience with.

Did anybody bother to watch the life streem of the outdoor event too?
I think that was actually pretty nicely done, definitely much better than yet another dull event in a hangar at the airport would have been, so this must have provided SN and STAR with a unique photo opportunity.
I'd assume they'll have more chance to make it into travel magazines with a blueish Brussels Town hall, than with a picture of a light show inside a hangar. The City of Brussels will also get a publicity boost from it, I am sure.

About LIN vs MXP:
I don't want to sound disrespectful, but are you serious?
Milan is one of our top destinations, both in yield as well as in number of pax, yet you want us to close MXP in favour of just 2 daily LIN flights????
LIN is doing very well indeed, but with just 2 flights a day, it doesn't allow SN to offer an attractive nor flexible schedule to business pax throughout the day, hence the need for MXP flights to supplement. Besides, MXP also has a wider catchment area than LIN, notably to that west of Milan, so even when we'd get more access to LIN (highly doubtful), we'd still keep serving MXP, I am sure. In fact, it's how LH, or any other European network carrier does it today: they all serve BOTH MXP as well as LIN; or are they all nuts and are you the only one seeing the light? Allow me to say that the idea MXP is nothing but the remote overflow airport of Milan is greatly outdated. Nowadays, MXP can be seen like the LHR of Milan, with LIN being their LCY (and BGY their LGW).

[SmilingBoy]

I read on Airliners.net that Ethiopia was confirmed. Middle 2010

I think not. They might announce membership in the middle of 2010, but no way it will be implemented by then:
http://www.atwonline.com/news/story.htm ... aily+News)

[RoMax]

Jaan Albrecht, CEO of Star Alliance, told in Brussels that they are negotiating with them. Lufthansa will be the sponsering airline (will help them entering the alliance) and Jaan Albrecht expect an official invitation of Star Alliance in the beginning of 2010. But he said it, the entry is not official until they invite Ethiopian next year. After this invitation it will take around 12 months(SN did it in 12 months but some carriers take more time) or a bit more to enter.

[DannyVDB]

About LIN vs MXP:
Besides, MXP also has a wider catchment area than LIN, notably to that west of Milan, so even when we'd get more access to LIN (highly doubtful), we'd still keep serving MXP, I am sure. In fact, it's how LH, or any other European network carrier does it today: they all serve BOTH MXP as well as LIN; or are they all nuts and are you the only one seeing the light? Allow me to say that the idea MXP is nothing but the remote overflow airport of Milan is greatly outdated. Nowadays, MXP can be seen like the LHR of Milan, with LIN being their LCY (and BGY their LGW).

Hi all,

I agree with this, MXP has a wide catchment area. Not everyone needs to be in Milan city. For example, not so far from MXP is the little town of Ispra. Nothing special, but it is hosting the headquarters of the Joint Research Centre of the European Union with a campus of 3000 staff. Daily there are people from the European Commission to have meetings there, workshops are organised with people coming from all over Europe, etc. For example from my organisation at regular intervals staff is being there as scientific visitor (e.g. for a full year). One of the people of my team was some years ago comuting weekly between Brussels and Ispra. Besides there is also a lot of tourism (lake area), so a lot of upscale tourists which are not necessarily seeking for Milan as such.

regards from Google headquarters, Mountain View, San Francisco
Danny

[Bralo20]

1 A319 will be added to the fleet in the next couple of months, the new aircraft will be painted in Star Alliance colors. When the A319 joins the fleet one of the 737's will retire.

A 5th A333 is still being searched, an additional Africa destination (which isn't disclosed) will be operated as soon as the economical climate is stable again.

[SmilingBoy]

Anybody knows whether SN will also codeshare with CO? Would make sense, wouldn't it?

[airbuske]

Anybody knows whether SN will also codeshare with CO? Would make sense, wouldn't it?

Gustin confirmed to ATWOnline that SN is negotiating codeshare deals with Air Canada, United Airlines, US Airways and Continental Airlines. AC and UA have announced new service to BRU from Montreal and Chicago O'Hare respectively, while US will increase its Philadelphia service to daily next summer. Agreements with CO and UA would replace the current agreement with American Airlines that terminates at the end of March.

[Atlantis]

We could also read that Star's eye is fallen on Pier A as a "Star under one roof".

[Atlantis]

1 A319 will be added to the fleet in the next couple of months, the new aircraft will be painted in Star Alliance colors. When the A319 joins the fleet one of the 737's will retire.

A 5th A333 is still being searched, an additional Africa destination (which isn't disclosed) will be operated as soon as the economical climate is stable again.

We could also read the same in Luchtvaartnieuws. Brussels Airlines has one new African destination on target. But, it's very wise of them not to say which and this to counter the competition (AF/KL)

http://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl/news/?ID=33052

[Conti764]

We could also read that Star's eye is fallen on Pier A as a "Star under one roof".

How could that be?

At BRU, you only have two option: Shengen (pier A) and Non-shengen (pier B), so all Shengen Star Alliance carriers are already at pier A and the Star Alliance non-shengen airlines can't transfer to pier A...

Now they could pull the same trick like they did with the SN Africa operations, but then they'd have to have all *A 'international' flights arriving at the B-pier, go trough border control and customs. International transfer pax would have to take SN's bus service to return to the A-pier... Planes have to be towed from B to A...

[RoMax]

I think Brussels Aiport is really trying to let all Star carriers fly from the A pier. Both arriving an departure, but I really don't how they gonne do that without extanding the A-pier to the west and make that part suitable for non-shengen.

[Conti764]

I think Brussels Aiport is really trying to let all Star carriers fly from the A pier. Both arriving an departure, but I really don't how they gonne do that without extanding the A-pier to the west and make that part suitable for non-shengen.

They can't... Unless they would expand the T-zone, but that would give less capacity to the other flights at the A-pier and it would make transfering between two non-shengen destinations, via BRU a real hassle...

[regi]

1 A319 will be added to the fleet in the next couple of months, the new aircraft will be painted in Star Alliance colors. When the A319 joins the fleet one of the 737's will retire.

A 5th A333 is still being searched, an additional Africa destination (which isn't disclosed) will be operated as soon as the economical climate is stable again.

We could also read the same in Luchtvaartnieuws. Brussels Airlines has one new African destination on target. But, it's very wise of them not to say which and this to counter the competition (AF/KL)

http://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl/news/?ID=33052

Nairobi ? To hurt KLM.

[RoMax]

SN is already flying to Nairobi. But only 3 times a week.

[sn26567]

Interesting article on SN in anna.aero published today.

Among the interesting findings: SN dominates the market (67% to 71%) only to three countries out of Brussels: France (nice to know!), Italy (not a surprise after the problems of Alitalia) and Sweden (an effect of Bromma vs Arlanda?).

[Atlantis]

I think Brussels Aiport is really trying to let all Star carriers fly from the A pier. Both arriving an departure, but I really don't how they gonne do that without extanding the A-pier to the west and make that part suitable for non-shengen.

They can't... Unless they would expand the T-zone, but that would give less capacity to the other flights at the A-pier and it would make transfering between two non-shengen destinations, via BRU a real hassle...

They can indeed extend to the west but not before the Diabolo is finished. There was some time ago a presentation by ex-spokeswomen Tru Lefevre about the expantion of the A-pier, Main terminal and the LCT.

[tolipanebas]

They can indeed extend to the west but not before the Diabolo is finished. There was some time ago a presentation by ex-spokeswomen Tru Lefevre about the expantion of the A-pier, Main terminal and the LCT.

I think that will be the likely outcome:
the current A pier becomes a sort of mega T pier in its entirety so the UA, US, AC, ET long haul STAR flights etc flights can all move in there together with the long haul SN flights and BRU builds a new finger westbound to house all the shengen flights from STAR partners which are currently housed in the first part of the A pier.

As I have predicted, STAR is not going to waste any time claiming what is rightfuly theirs from BRU: a dedicated terminal to be able to make full benefit of the 'under one roof strategy'.

BRU should have known this was coming and they should in fact have started to prepare for it as from the moment SN announced the take-over by LH and the intention to join STAR, but no, they preferred to mess around with a Low Cost Terminal idea for another 12 months instead.

Over time, a fully grown STAR hub in BRU can bring in more than a million extra pax per year (if for instance NK, JJ, SQ, etc decide to serve BRU, which is not that impossible as it may sound, given the fact CO has already said BRU has now become more important to them then AMS for future expansion!), which will all be paying the full airport fees of BRU, one of the highest in the EU! Do the math and figure out how many millions of low cost pax BRU would need to attract to get to the same revenue.... Even the entire transplantation of the Ryanair base from CRL to BRU wouldn't do match it!

In short: there's an oportunity waiting for BRU to act on it, so better get your buts moving, guys.
If they can't present at least a clear expansion plan in 6 to 12 months, you can bet your life STAR is going to turn very unfriendly once more... Remember last time they did, BRU wetted its pant, halted the low cost carrier terminal project and sacked its CEO...

[Sabena320]

Hi,

I've a question. How can you transform most of the A-pier to a full Star Alliance pier with a big non-schengen part as the A-pier only has one public level? It's correct that non-schengen arriving and departing passengers must be seperated right? How could they then fix that problem?

[Darjeeling]

Interesting article on SN in anna.aero published today.

Among the interesting findings: SN dominates the market (67% to 71%) only to three countries out of Brussels: France (nice to know!), Italy (not a surprise after the problems of Alitalia) and Sweden (an effect of Bromma vs Arlanda?).

bromma is a real goldmine for SN, always full-full I understand... wonder how the SK-SN relationship will evolve as far as bromma is concerned.

[RoMax]

Since SN operated from Bromma for both SN and SAS these flights work better. So I think they will codeshare on eachother flights but stay where they are now. (SN:Bromma, SK: Arlanda). It would be a diffucult situation but that is nothing compared to the good figures of SN's flights to Bromma.