Brussels Airlines joining Star Alliance in December 2009

[airbuske]

When you try to book a flight to the US you get this message on the Brussels Airlines site:

The destination you have selected can only be booked for travel until 28 March 2010. For travel dates later than 28 March, we advise you to visit one of our Star Alliance partners. Booking flights to the United States will be possible again from April 2010.

So codeshare with the Star Alliance partners to US is not for the coming month?

[kiwiandrew]

When you try to book a flight to the US you get this message on the Brussels Airlines site:

The destination you have selected can only be booked for travel until 28 March 2010. For travel dates later than 28 March, we advise you to visit one of our Star Alliance partners. Booking flights to the United States will be possible again from April 2010.

So codeshare with the Star Alliance partners to US is not for the coming month?

I suspect that there is a clause in their soon-to-expire agreement with AA which prohibits them from making codeshares available with other airlines to the US until the agreement actually expires . I could be wrong ,but I would suspect that they have everything all ready to load into the system as soon as they are contractually free of the AA agreement ... but until the actual moment of expiry their hands are tied .

[sdbelgium]

Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines have forged a codeshare agreement now that the latter has joined the Star Alliance. Until now, Austrian Airlines has flown the route from Vienna to Brussels five times a day, but from the end of March 2010 when the summer schedule begins, the two carriers will offer seven flights a day on this route between them. All flights will be marketed by both partners offering new and connections, both to Belgium itself and beyond. Flights can be booked from February 18.

http://www.traveldaily.co.uk/AsiaPacifi ... tion=17867

[tolipanebas]

It doesn't look like the flight schedule is fully optimized though, because as I can see in the GDS, OS and SN will both operate a moring flight with just than half an hour in between...

There's definitely room for improvement to the schedule still. ideally, there would be a flight every 2 hours or so, rather than 2 flights within half an hour, and then no flights for well over 3 hours, but okay, it's a start, I expect it to be optimized as they go along.

[euroflyer]

The perfect timetable between VIE and BRU might run into problems with the slot allocation? So maybe they have to keep the slots they both have at the moment and try to develop it from timetable to timetable by small improvements, whenever other slots become available?

[RoMax]

I think the mornig can sustain two flights within half an hour if they have a lot of connection pax.

[brusselsairlinesfan]

So all codeshares agreements between brussels airlines and others LH Group members are secured now?
Next step : increase those kind of agreements with all Star Alliance partners... would be logical to deal with SAS for example...

[tolipanebas]

So all codeshares agreements between brussels airlines and others LH Group members are secured now?
Next step : increase those kind of agreements with all Star Alliance partners... would be logical to deal with SAS for example...

Not all of them...

I know it is maybe a bit far fetched, but SN might also want to try codesharing with Air Dolomiti?

It could for instance feed domestic Air Dolomiti flights at MXP and who knows, even persuade them to open a new route to BRU (for instance from Verona)?

On the other hand: Air Dolomiti seems to be extremely focussed on LH, as they aren't feeding LX flights either, which is a bit strange, IMHO.

[Stij]

Verona would be nice fro me as I have a lot of business there, but first, pleaeaeaeaeaease, an evening rotation to VCE!!! Now the latest return is already at 14:50, even Ryanair's 21:25 is more convenient from Treviso!!!

Cheers,

Stij

[sn26567]

Indeed, this afternoon, Brussels Airlines announced on Twitter that "Brussels Airlines increases its flight frequencies to Vienna and signs a codeshare agreement with Austrian Airlines (more daily frequencies)".

However the SN website has a technical problem and the press releases are not shown. Luckily, the Austrian Airlines site works correctly:

Austrian Airlines launches cooperation with new Star Alliance partner Brussels Airlines
Codeshare agreement creates strong connections to and from Belgium

At the end of March 2010, with the beginning of the summer schedule, Austrian Airlines will be launching its cooperation with new Star Alliance partner airline Brussels Airlines. Until now, Austrian Airlines has flown the route from Vienna to Brussels five times a day. In future, however, the cooperation between the two carriers will allow us to offer two more flights a day, increasing the total to seven flights a day. We offer our customers a finely-tuned flight schedule. All flights are to be marketed by both partners Brussels Airport is the hub of Brussels Airlines, and we will also be offering new and attractive connections, both to Belgium itself and beyond. Our customers will benefit from additional options for transferring into the Austrian Airlines route network.

Vienna-Brussels (valid from 28 March 2010):

OS 8177 operated by Brussels Airlines
Daily except Sunday
Vienna 6.50 a.m.
Brussels 8.45 a.m.
Avro RJ100

OS 351
Daily
Vienna 7.05 a.m.
Brussels 8.50 a.m.
Airbus A320

OS 8171 operated by Brussels Airlines
Daily
Vienna 9.55 a.m.
Brussels 11.45 a.m.
Boeing 737-400

OS 353
Daily except Saturday
Vienna 1.50 p.m.
Brussels 3.35 p.m.
Fokker 100

OS 355
Daily
Vienna 5.30 p.m.
Brussels 7:15 p.m.
Airbus A320

OS 8173 operated by Brussels Airlines
Daily except Saturday
Vienna 6.20 p.m.
Brussels 8.15 p.m.
Avro RJ100

OS 8175 operated by Brussels Airlines
Daily
Vienna 8.45 p.m.
Brussels 10.40 p.m.
Boeing 737-400

Brussels-Vienna (valid from 28 March 2010):

OS 8172 operated by Brussels Airlines
Daily
Brussels 7.00 a.m.
Vienna 8.50 a.m.
Boeing 737-400

OS 352
Daily
Brussels 10.25 a.m.
Vienna 12:15 p.m.
Airbus A320

OS 8174 operated by Brussels Airlines
Daily except Saturday
Brussels 4.00 p.m.
Vienna 5.50 p.m.
Avro RJ100

OS 354
Daily except Saturday
Brussels 5.00 p.m.
Vienna 6.50 p.m.
Fokker 100

OS 8176 operated by Brussels Airlines
Daily
Brussels 6.25 p.m.
Vienna 8.15 p.m.
Boeing 737-400

OS 8178 operated by Brussels Airlines
Daily except Saturday
Brussels 7:20 p.m.
Vienna 9.10 p.m.
Avro RJ100

OS 356
Daily
Brussels 8.00 p.m.
Vienna 9.45 p.m.
Airbus A320

Flights can be booked from 18th February 2010 on the Austrian website at www.austrian.com, by telephone on our booking hotline 05 1766 1000, or at your local travel agency.

[diminbru]

I wonder if OS will codeshare on the AFI flights also...

[tolipanebas]

We offer our customers a finely-tuned flight schedule.

I beg to differ....

There's a HUGE gap in the afternoon on the BRU-> VIE route, and the VIE-> BRU route is top heavy: 2 flights withing 15 minutes! Come on, push that second flight back to 8 o'clock at least!

Vienna-Brussels:
6.50 a.m.
7.05 a.m.
9.55 a.m.
1.50 p.m.
5.30 p.m.
6.20 p.m.
8.45 p.m.

BTW, the current 8 daily flights, flown as 3(SN) + 5(OS), will thus become 7 daily flights, flown as 4 (SN) + 3 (OS) once the codeshare takes effect....

Brussels-Vienna
7.00 a.m.
10.25a.m.
4.00 p.m.
5.00 p.m.
6.25 p.m.
7:20 p.m.
8.00 p.m.

Interesting to see how the current 8 flights (3+5), become 7 (4+3) once the codeshare takes effect. BTW.

[euroflyer]

Well, quite good news for SN I guess, they receive one extra flight and two of the flights will even be with the biggest short-haul metal (737-400), so they seem to expect quite good load factors ... Except for the early morning departures from VIE the timetable is not bad I have to say. Covers most of the day quite good. However, I cannot understand that it still makes sense to plan a night stop in VIE for SN, that must cost some money and it reduces the flexibility on the fleet usage (the crew which stays there over night need to have the same type of plane to be flown in the next afternoon or so in order to able to fly this back to BRU). Thought with such a close partnership one could do without this. But even LH continues to operate with nightstops in BRU for its FRA and MUC services.

[HighInTheSky]

However, I cannot understand that it still makes sense to plan a night stop in VIE for SN, that must cost some money and it reduces the flexibility on the fleet usage (the crew which stays there over night need to have the same type of plane to be flown in the next afternoon or so in order to able to fly this back to BRU).

The VIE nightstop is a 'minimum rest' nightstop wich means that the crew who flies the last flight of the day, will fly the first flight of the next day aswel. Same goes for HAM, GVA and GOT. So the aircraft is always of the same type.

[euroflyer]

OK, thank you, again I learned something ... So the only cost is the hotel and the extra money for the crew. Still it should be possible to work out a timetable without night stops in places where you have a hub of a partner airline, shouldnt't it?

[Air Key West]

Night stops are nothing unusual for network carriers. They are, however, an exception with LCCs.

[134flyer]

In today’s ‘De Tijd’ newspaper there was an article about SN with some remarks made by Thierry Antinori (Executive Vice President Marketing & Sales of LH) & Bernard Gustin (co-CEO of SN). Most of it is already known and not really ‘breaking news’, but still interesting info. Some highlights:

-LH is quite happy with their investment in SN

-As already known, LH has adopted the ‘multi-hub system’, with BRU being the ‘Africa specialist’, although that doesn’t necessarily mean that all Africa flights of the LH Group Airlines will switch to BRU. On the other hand, this also means that SN is not solely confined to operate intercontinental flights to Africa, so therefore:
-It is not unlikely that SN at some point in the future (…) will fly to the US themselves, as 12% of the Africa sales originates from the US

-Sales from the US (via BRU) to Africa has risen by 40% during the last year and a lot of this can be contributed to the fact that SN now is part of the Miles & More Frequent Frequent Flyer Programme

-The main target of SN & LH is to steal market share in Africa from the competition, i.e. mostly AF/KL. (AF by the way, will have a press conference in Brussels next week to unveil their Africa plans)

-Nothing new here, but at the end of this year, or the beginning of next year, it will be decided by what aircraft type the Avro’s will be replaced, and the Bombardier C-series is a big contender, but that of course is also not really ‘Breaking News’

[kiwiandrew]

-The main target of SN & LH is to steal market share in Africa from the competition, i.e. mostly AF/KL. (AF by the way, will have a press conference in Brussels next week to unveil their Africa plans)

I wonder why AF would hold the press conference in Brussels . Any ideas ?

[Atlantis]

The same reason as SN did, steal clients from each other country/airline. AF/KL and SN are big competitiors when it comes to flights to Africa.

[sn26567]

AF by the way, will have a press conference in Brussels next week to unveil their Africa plans

AF has already published its plans for Africa:

In Africa, capacity has grown by 2.9% thanks to additional frequencies to several destinations, namely Bangui in the Central African Republic (2 flights a week), Lomé in Togo (4 flights a week), Pointe Noire in Congo Brazzaville (4 flights a week), and Libreville on condition that traffic rights are obtained from the authorities in Gabon (5 flights a week).

Air France is opening a new destination in Bata, Equatorial Guinea (on condition that traffic rights are obtained). There will be a twice-weekly service to Bata via Malabo that will have a daily service from now on. During the summer peak periods, flights to Ouagadougou (a daily flight) and Niamey (3 flights a week) will be disconnected.

Services to Johannesburg will be operated daily in A380 instead of 12 weekly frequencies in B777. During the five weeks the Football World Cup lasts, Air France will operate an additional 3 daily flights to this destination.