Interview of CEO Gustin: Brussels Airlines renamed Eurowings? ...and other topics

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Belgaviation
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Interview of CEO Gustin: Brussels Airlines renamed Eurowings? ...and other topics

Post by Belgaviation »

Found Saturday in La Libre Belgique, in an interview of Bernard Gustin

"Brussels Airlines ou Eurowings ? Le client choisira"

Q: Des rumeurs faisaient état d’un changement de nom, voulu par Lufthansa, de Brussels Airlines en Eurowings. Est-ce vrai ?

A: Je souhaite qu’on participe à la mise en place d’une plateforme européenne (NdlR : nommée Eurowings) du groupe Lufthansa. Mais cela n’implique pas forcément un changement de nom ou de marque. Il n’y a pas de dogme : on a développé une marque belge, forte, reconnue, mais le jour où l’on me dit que "Brussels Airlines" ne fait plus aucun sens, je n’ai pas de problème à changer de nom. Personnellement, je suis convaincu qu’il y a une valeur derrière "Brussels Airlines". Mais si le consommateur veut qu’on se nomme Eurowings, on deviendra Eurowings. Dans les questions de marque, c’est toujours le client qui décide.

b-west

Re: Brussels Airlines remaned Eurowings?

Post by b-west »

What a strange answer. I don't think any passenger would go to Brussels Airlines and ask them to change their name. What passenger would care about that anyway? If SN changes its name it'll be because lufthansa dictates them to do so, because marketeers need to justify their inflated paychecks by coming up with new nonsense.

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sn26567
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Re: Brussels Airlines remaned Eurowings?

Post by sn26567 »

There was much more in the interview of Gustin (reserved for paying users)

1. In 2015 SN will be out of the red figures for the first time since 2010
2. The terror alert has cost SN 50,000 reservations and millions of euros, otherwise figures would have been even better
3. The decision to fly to India (or not) will be taken in a few weeks. This will involve 125 new jobs (whereas the loss of Jet Airways represents only 25 jobs).
4. Brussels Airlines is a strong brand: no need to change, unless Lufthansa decides so and the customer wants it.
5. SN will not fly from CRL
6. In some African airports, SN crew are escorted by guards or police
7. Competition by Gulf airlines needs a European response

... and many other topics (Ebola, Ryanair, ...)
André
ex Sabena #26567

convair
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Re: Brussels Airlines remaned Eurowings?

Post by convair »

2 suggestions André:

-Gustin's interview would fit well under another topic (as well?);
-the title of this thread could/should at least be changed: "renamed" i.s.o. "remaned".

Have a nice day!

BRU
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Re: Brussels Airlines remaned Eurowings?

Post by BRU »

sn26567 wrote:The decision to fly to India (or not) will be taken in a few weeks. This will involve 125 new jobs (whereas the loss of Jet Airways represents only 25 jobs).
Direct loss was only 25, because that we the amount of people working for Jet Airways. A lot more were employed by subcontractors and also working for the 9W flights. Since Brussels Airlines does some activities themselves, you can not compare them that easily. I do agree that an extra aircraft / flight for Brussels Airlines generates more jobs than an extra long haul flight of a foreign company. But 4 flights compared to just one flight ?

flightlover
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Re: Brussels Airlines remaned Eurowings?

Post by flightlover »

BRU wrote:
sn26567 wrote:The decision to fly to India (or not) will be taken in a few weeks. This will involve 125 new jobs (whereas the loss of Jet Airways represents only 25 jobs).

Direct loss was only 25, because that we the amount of people working for Jet Airways. A lot more were employed by subcontractors and also working for the 9W flights. Since Brussels Airlines does some activities themselves, you can not compare them that easily. I do agree that an extra aircraft / flight for Brussels Airlines generates more jobs than an extra long haul flight of a foreign company. But 4 flights compared to just one flight ?
The flight crew has longer working hours/flight than ground crew. So yes by having one Belgian flight crew doing the rotation there are a lot more Belgian people employed by a SN flight compared to a 9W flight.

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RoMax
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Re: Brussels Airlines remaned Eurowings?

Post by RoMax »

b-west wrote:What a strange answer. I don't think any passenger would go to Brussels Airlines and ask them to change their name. What passenger would care about that anyway? If SN changes its name it'll be because lufthansa dictates them to do so, because marketeers need to justify their inflated paychecks by coming up with new nonsense.
Of course it's not a matter of passengers that want a different name, however it is a question of what kind of product/airline the customer wants. Do they want a hybrid product such as that of SN in Europe, or do they want something like Eurowings which is more true LCC (or what LH thinks the Belgian market needs). That's what he means by saying it's the customers that will decide.

crew1990
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Re: Brussels Airlines remaned Eurowings?

Post by crew1990 »

BRU wrote:
sn26567 wrote:Direct loss was only 25, because that we the amount of people working for Jet Airways. A lot more were employed by subcontractors and also working for the 9W flights. Since Brussels Airlines does some activities themselves, you can not compare them that easily. I do agree that an extra aircraft / flight for Brussels Airlines generates more jobs than an extra long haul flight of a foreign company. But 4 flights compared to just one flight ?
They were before 4 Jetairways flight, Newark, Toronto, Mumbai and New Delhi

Newark is taking over by United, Toronto by Brussels Airlines, Mumbai is likely to be taken over by Brussels Airlines as well so it's actually 3 out of 4 and I wouldn't be surprise that New Delhi comes back in a couple of year.

The leaving of Jetairways is a very good thing for Belgian employment.

telspace2005
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Re: Interview of CEO Gustin: Brussels Airlines renamed Eurowings? ...and other topics

Post by telspace2005 »

Seeing the SN passengers´reviews on Skytrak, (with lots of red X), a change of name is a waist of time.
The question I ask myself when booking a flight, is the service provided for the price paid.
If I can fly from BRU to Berlin for 40% of a SN ticket, with same service (meaning no service, except transport), I'll choose Ryanair.
Off all I know who traveled this year where SN goes, none chose SN...strange isn't it ?

Boavida
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Re: Interview of CEO Gustin: Brussels Airlines renamed Eurowings? ...and other topics

Post by Boavida »

If Brussels Airlines changes its name to the generic meaningless brand 'eurowings', after Jetairfly changed its name to the equally generic and meaningless brand 'TUI', Belgium would no longer have it's 'own' recognizable brands in the sky. What an utterly sad day that must be.

OO-ITR
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Re: Interview of CEO Gustin: Brussels Airlines renamed Eurowings? ...and other topics

Post by OO-ITR »

telspace2005 wrote:Seeing the SN passengers´reviews on Skytrak, (with lots of red X), a change of name is a waist of time.
The question I ask myself when booking a flight, is the service provided for the price paid.
If I can fly from BRU to Berlin for 40% of a SN ticket, with same service (meaning no service, except transport), I'll choose Ryanair.
Off all I know who traveled this year where SN goes, none chose SN...strange isn't it ?
Can we all stop giving 'people I know' or 'the cleaning lady of my neighbour's nephew' as a source and let's all stick to facts that can be verified like SN press release of this morning : 7.5 mio pax/12.1% more compared to 2014/...

And honestly I don't see what your 'contribution' has to do with the possibility of Brussels Airlines being renamed Eurowings???

White Light
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Re: Interview of CEO Gustin: Brussels Airlines renamed Eurowings? ...and other topics

Post by White Light »

How is Gustin going to let the clients choose ? A poll ? Who is he going to sound out ?

Flanker2
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Re: Interview of CEO Gustin: Brussels Airlines renamed Eurowings? ...and other topics

Post by Flanker2 »

Bravo of SN if they start India flights. An opportunity that should followed up on. This should be mildly profitable if done right, ie best service, decent pricing. Sure, BOM is good but DEL also deserves attention.
It will also make their U.S. routes more sustainable.

About Eurowings, it's no no for me.
Next thing you know it's Eurowings and the next next thing is that Belgian crews are going to be moved to other hubs of Eurowings, along with the profitable routes. It's probably just a joker that Gustin wants to keep for the next union "frenzy".

But again, if LH exercises its options come spring, who's to stop them from doing anything they want?
Corporate Germany has lost much of its integrity and serious since the turn of the century, so they would give little d*mn about SN and their cute little name.

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RoMax
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Re: Interview of CEO Gustin: Brussels Airlines renamed Eurowings? ...and other topics

Post by RoMax »

Flanker2 wrote: About Eurowings, it's no no for me.
Next thing you know it's Eurowings and the next next thing is that Belgian crews are going to be moved to other hubs of Eurowings, along with the profitable routes. It's probably just a joker that Gustin wants to keep for the next union "frenzy".

But again, if LH exercises its options come spring, who's to stop them from doing anything they want?
Corporate Germany has lost much of its integrity and serious since the turn of the century, so they would give little d*mn about SN and their cute little name.
I'm sure Gustin will fight for the Brussels Airlines brand and product (especially now that they started to prove that it can actually work quite well), but indeed in the end there is not much he can do if LH decides otherwise.

Inquirer
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Re: Interview of CEO Gustin: Brussels Airlines renamed Eurowings? ...and other topics

Post by Inquirer »

White Light wrote:How is Gustin going to let the clients choose ? A poll ? Who is he going to sound out ?
It might simply mean that the 2 brands may actually start to be offered next to each other at BRU too, with the clients able to make a choice who he flies with.

I've seen Eurowings has now based planes in VIE recently: no idea if their routes overlap with those of Austrian, but even if they don't, it allows the holding company of both airline brands to easily see what brand is most popular in each market and to subsequently shift routes back and forth between the 2 brands to maximize overall profit.

In the end, when you buy a washing powder in your local shop, more than 2/3rd of the shelf is filled with powders produced by one and the same company as well. Whatever you chose, chances are big your money ends up in the same pocket anyway and the same concept is increasingly looked at by aviation groups too: trying to satisfy all market segments with just one singly brand is not the smartest thing to do. ;)

White Light
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Re: Interview of CEO Gustin: Brussels Airlines renamed Eurowings? ...and other topics

Post by White Light »

Inquirer wrote:It might simply mean that the 2 brands may actually start to be offered next to each other at BRU too, with the clients able to make a choice who he flies with.
Thank you for your reaction and attempt to interpret Gustin's words. However, I would not see the rational behind Eurowings offering flights offered already by SN, unless it would mean an increase in frequencies to certain destinations, but destinations which need or would need more frequencies are mainly business destinations and Eurowings is primarily going after leisure travellers, as far as I know.

WIth SN already in hard competition with Ryanair, Vueling and Easyjet (at BRU) plus a few others at CRL, it would, imho, be irrational from LH increase competition even more for SN, unless the hidden agenda is to make SN disappear (as a brand ?), at least in Europe.

From what I hear, SN as alreday very low operating costs. Would Eurowings' operating cost even be lower ?
In addition, should the SN brand disappear in Europe (I cannot imagine EW flying to FIH for instance), the connecting European flights to/from long haul would not offer any Business class anymore, which, imho, might deter high yield pax from choosing SN/EW (longhaul/short haul).

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Re: Interview of CEO Gustin: Brussels Airlines renamed Eurowings? ...and other topics

Post by sn26567 »

Eurowings Europe (Austria) will hire 600 crew members as its fleet expands to 19 A320s by end of 2017. The airline will have its AOC in Austria with two A320s based in Vienna. Other bases in Europe are under evaluation.
André
ex Sabena #26567

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Conti764
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Re: Interview of CEO Gustin: Brussels Airlines renamed Eurowings? ...and other topics

Post by Conti764 »

What would the LH group have to benefit from renaming Brussels Airlines into Eurowings? The company is getting more and more brand recognition and I have red a number of trip reports where SN seems to be gathering quite some positive experiences, mostly in C...

Why not renaming LX or OS or... LH, then?

Bralo20
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Re: Interview of CEO Gustin: Brussels Airlines renamed Eurowings? ...and other topics

Post by Bralo20 »

You know, you'll all keep fighting over Brussels Airlines or Eurowings, I think we should go for the 3th option, a dormant, yet famous brand: Sabena.

You know the saying: when 2 dogs fight over a bone, the 3rd runs away with it :-)

Bralo20
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Re: Interview of CEO Gustin: Brussels Airlines renamed Eurowings? ...and other topics

Post by Bralo20 »

I'm not sure that rebranding Brussels Airlines will work but like said, it's the owner in the end who decides, so if LH group says we are going to get rid of SN (and maybe other brands) then this will happen. Personally I don't see a reason to change the brand but then I'm not a beancounter.


(unless it's stipulated in the contract that the name cannot be changed for x amount of years which can also be a possibility)

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