BRU Summer 2018: news, new routes, airlines

[RoMax]

New SN service from 28 April 2018: Kalamata (Greece), weekly on saturday.

Ex Thomas Cook flight.

When was Kalamata served as a regular destination by TCAB? From what I know definitely not this summer and it was not part of the ex-TCAB routes that are just taken over. The route is not launched only for Thomas Cook but also other touroperators.

[rwandan-flyer]

Brussels Airlines extends its 6 weekly service to Entebbe in summer.

Kigali will be served 5 times a week, instead of 6 times, by Brussels Airlines.

[TLspotting]

TUI fly Belgium will open 2 new routes from Brussels, as from June 2018, according to Travel Express Benelux Facebook page.

They will open :
Brussels - Aruba on June 15 (only Mondays apparently, coupled with SDQ)
Brussels - Curacao on June 18 (only Fridays, coupled with SDQ)

These flights will be operated with 787s, so conforming the info at the begin of this year with a 787 that could replace OO-JNL during the next year.

[luchtzak]

TUI fly Belgium will open 2 new routes from Brussels, as from June 2018, according to Travel Express Benelux Facebook page.

Couldn't hesitate to write about this news https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/tui-f ... m-antwerp/

[sonic boom]

The new routes are loaded for TUIfly in the summer (Not the fares)

The routes mentioned before are showing up:

Brussels - Curacao
Brussels - Aruba
Antwerp - Firenze

Other new or reintroduced ones:

Brussels - Valencia
Brussels - Kavala
Liege - Kayseri
Brussels - Pristina
Brussels - Lesbos

Possibly others ...

[luchtzak]

TUI fly Belgium will open 2 new routes from Brussels, as from June 2018, according to Travel Express Benelux Facebook page.

Couldn't hesitate to write about this news https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/tui-f ... m-antwerp/

And now a full detailed news article: https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/tui-f ... mmer-2018/

[theeuropean]

One slight mistake with the TUI routes: Kavala is not in Lesbos, it's a city in northern Greece to the East of Thessaloniki. Lesbos is an island in the North East Aegean sea which capital is Mytilene. So will TUI fly to both or just one of the two?

[sonic boom]

One slight mistake with the TUI routes: Kavala is not in Lesbos, it's a city in northern Greece to the East of Thessaloniki. Lesbos is an island in the North East Aegean sea which capital is Mytilene. So will TUI fly to both or just one of the two?

They will fly both Kavala and Lesbos.

They fly to Kavala but market it as Thassos in the media (probably because of their hotel partners over there) So you'll need a ferry to visit Thassos.

So in the article it is stated incorrect

[sn26567]

Thanks, guys: some of you have eagle's eyes. I have corrected in our article and I have contacted TUI fly to tell them about their mistake.

[brusselsairlinesfan]

More SN l/h destinations!

[sn26567]

TUI fly Belgium will eliminate service to Orlando Sanford, and start operating Brussels – Miami terminator service on 27 March 2018, with B767-300ER.

[sn26567]

Volotea plans to offer new service from Oviedo/Asturias to Brussels, Frankfurt, Milan, Rome and Vienna within three to five years.

I know this doesn't fit in this thread, but it doesn't really fit in any thread

[sn26567]

SunExpress (Turkey) to start new service from Ankara to London Luton, Paris CDG and Zurich; Antalya to Brussels and London Luton; Bodrum to Munich; Gaziantep to London Luton and Zurich; Izmir to Lyon and St Petersburg; Kayseri to Hamburg, Muenster, and Strasbourg, and from Konya to Stockholm Arlanda, starting in May and June 2018.

[Boeing767copilot]

Looking ahead, Léon Verhallen explains that Brussels Airport would like to continue its successful Asia growth strategy of the last few years.

“After Beijing, Bangkok, Tokyo, Mumbai, Shanghai and Hong Kong, we still see Delhi, Singapore, Seoul, Taipeh, Manilla and Vietnam as short- and mid-term targets. In North America we still search for a flight to the West Coast, such as San Francisco, while also Boston and Houston offer good opportunities.

“In Latin America it is Sao Paulo and Bogota, and in Africa Johannesburg and Lagos. The latter would complement the already unique network that we offer to sub-Sahara Africa.”

Verhallen stresses that Brussels is now firmly focussed on the future. He concludes: “From now on, we want to look forward again, and our recently published ‘Brussels Airport Vision 2040‘ sets the path to the development of Brussels Airport to 40 million passengers in 2040.”

https://www.routesonline.com/news/29/br ... b-20171117

[domtom]

Don't sweat it! Vietnam won't happen. Warsaw, which serves a much bigger VN expat community was discontinued by LOT. If I'm not mistaken they now only do charters to SGN

[RoMax]

Don't sweat it! Vietnam won't happen. Warsaw, which serves a much bigger VN expat community was discontinued by LOT. If I'm not mistaken they now only do charters to SGN

Very few long haul routes (and I mean like VERY FEW) survive (almost) purely on local demand - if LOT didn't manage to gain foot in the transfer market at either side of the route, it's obvious the route didn't work (except for the charter operations that they still retained). That doesn't mean it wouldn't work for someone else, even when serving a smaller O&D market. Besides, I'm not quite sure if the large VFR market that LOT was serving is high yield enough, I doubt it.

Vietnam is maybe not the most obvious in the list, but I wouldn't rule it out on the middle long term. It took BRU years to gain routes like Tokyo, Bangkok and Hong Kong, as very few long haul carriers just play around a bit. It takes time and the more for an airport like BRU which is surrounded by the largest hubs of Europe and very well connected with all of them. Yet none of the routes mentioned by Léon are unrealistic dreams. The only thing unrealistic about it, are people hoping to see them materialise all within a matter of a few years. Some can be really short term, others might easily take another 5 years.

[Ozzie1969]

Why not Manila? The number of Filipinos in Belgium is large and the Middle Eastern carriers could easily add MNL as a destination from Brussels with just one stop-over.

[Jetter]

Vietnam is maybe not the most obvious in the list, but I wouldn't rule it out on the middle long term. It took BRU years to gain routes like Tokyo, Bangkok and Hong Kong, as very few long haul carriers just play around a bit. It takes time and the more for an airport like BRU which is surrounded by the largest hubs of Europe and very well connected with all of them. Yet none of the routes mentioned by Léon are unrealistic dreams. The only thing unrealistic about it, are people hoping to see them materialise all within a matter of a few years. Some can be really short term, others might easily take another 5 years.

SN doesn't have the plane to fly to Vietnam and VN as SkyTeam member would most likely prefer AMS; Hanoi is he largest SkyTeam hub not connected to AMS even. So anything Vietnam seems highly unlikely. The rest of the list makes sense.

[Ozzie1969]

Why not Manila? The number of Filipinos in Belgium is large and the Middle Eastern carriers could easily add MNL as a destination from Brussels with just one stop-over.

Huh?
That’s already possible, obviously.

What I meant was for Brussels Airlines to have Manila as a destination, possibly in codeshare. I remember Sabena used to fly to Manila.

[ezis_bis]

I don't know about you guys, but for me I prefer not to fly these ultra long flights
I go to Buenos Aires and I prefer 10h+6h via Bogota over the direct one from FRA which is 14h or so

So MNL from BRU would be the same issue

Add to it that you don't have wealthy/travelling public on both sides, nor connections
You need to fill the plane with people (€€ ) or offer them an extra (*A connections)

That's a bit less of a problem to ICN/TPE, and even BOG/GRU