Brussels Airlines in 2021

[Airbus330lover]

Very simple : They have send an A320 to DUB. The fight was DUB-CDG, why not DUB-MUC ?

[crew1990]

And what is telling you that they would be enought seat available in MUC did you check personally the load factor of all flights departing that day? SN got those info as SN and LH share the same booking engine.

[Atlantis]

And what is telling you that they would be enought seat available in MUC did you check personally the load factor of all flights departing that day? SN got those info as SN and LH share the same booking engine.

Never forget that we have here more people on the forum who know everything better then the airlines itself.....

[oldblueeyes]

Planes get new painting every 6-7 years. And the transition will be done at the time each aircraft needs anyhow a new visit to the paint shop, regardless of the livery.
To me, timing is ok :
- there is a new positioning as network airline
- 2023 there are 3 committed A320 NEOs coming, PR wise good to present them into new liveries
- many Airlines have after restructuring programs new liveries implemented- it's a psychologisch thing, for the employees staying to look forward

New Designs can also evolve - there is one now, the company is getting feedback and adapt slightly.
Lufthansa tested 40 years ago a yellow Design on a 737-200. BA had 20 years ago teils without the Union Jack, New Coke scored great in blind test but once on the market failed etc.

Marketing is a discipline for itself, but it works with data generated in statistics, focus groups etc. and it always carries tge risk that the value which has to be generated - emotional impact - goes the other way round. But the judgements are like in football 99% of these having no clue believe to be entiteled to have an unqualified opinion.

if anything, all this shows that LH is committed to SN. I have a better feeling now than 2 years ago. I hope SN has a bright future ahead under LH now

And a new long haul A330 announced. But of course, nationalisation is the key, especially if more 330 would arrive.

[Boavida]

Ok, my final verdict on the logo/livery (as a part-time graphic designer)

- The new logo is good and with the bigger 'brussels' better recognizable
- The new livery is OK but definitely needs some tweaking:

There are too many dots on the fuselage. I repeat: too many dots.



The problem are the dots at the front of the plane. They look ridiculous and they interfere with the new logo/titles.

These dots need to go. Certainly the grey ones. If necessary they can keep the blue ones under the name... (but please make them smaller)

[convair]

Re the re-start of Conakry and Ouaga destinations (cfr the SN fleet thread), it's a pity SN had to suspend them for 2 years (they re-open next June).
They will have to rebuild their market share, maybe not from scratch, but still not an easy task.

Hopefully they built a good enough reputation there, so that they're not totally forgotten.

[sn26567]

Re the re-start of Conakry and Ouaga destinations (cfr the SN fleet thread), it's a pity SN had to suspend them for 2 years (they re-open next June).
They will have to rebuild their market share, maybe not from scratch, but still not an easy task.

Hopefully they built a good enough reputation there, so that they're not totally forgotten.

People in those countries don't travel very often to Europe and remember a long time. They even still call Brussels Airlines "Sabena".

[Boavida]

Some people have posted videos of the new livery on youtube using Microsoft Flight Simulator, and I've noticed that the name 'brussels' is at the bottom of the plane. Is this a fantasy or actually part of the new livery?

[crew1990]

It look nice unfortunately given the fact that cost control has been an important factor during the set up of this livery, I doubt that the bottom of the plane has extra painting as it would be an additional cost with no real value added.

[rwandan-flyer]

Competition is stiff in Guinea:

From Europe or to Europe, you have Turkish Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, Royal Air Maroc, Air Senegal, Air France, and Tunisair.

From or to North America, you have Air France, Turkish Airlines, TAP Air Portugal, Tunisair, Air Senegal and Royal Air Maroc


We can also add Emirates and Ethiopian which competes with Air France and TK about connecting to and from Asia. Asia is a big market for Guinea

Asia is not served by SN

ANA and Thai are only the Asians airlines that serves BRU and which can provide (long) connecting via BRU thanks to the Star Alliance. It's not the case with SkyTeam via CDG or Star Alliance via IST.



Like Convair says, it won't be an easy task. We are not anymore in 1990s, when European Airlines ruled the sky in Africa. Now you have Qatar, Emirates, Turkish Airlines, Ethiopian, Royal Air Maroc.

[Flanker2]

Planes get new painting every 6-7 years. And the transition will be done at the time each aircraft needs anyhow a new visit to the paint shop, regardless of the livery.
To me, timing is ok :
- there is a new positioning as network airline
- 2023 there are 3 committed A320 NEOs coming, PR wise good to present them into new liveries
- many Airlines have after restructuring programs new liveries implemented- it's a psychologisch thing, for the employees staying to look forward

New Designs can also evolve - there is one now, the company is getting feedback and adapt slightly.
Lufthansa tested 40 years ago a yellow Design on a 737-200. BA had 20 years ago teils without the Union Jack, New Coke scored great in blind test but once on the market failed etc.

Marketing is a discipline for itself, but it works with data generated in statistics, focus groups etc. and it always carries tge risk that the value which has to be generated - emotional impact - goes the other way round. But the judgements are like in football 99% of these having no clue believe to be entiteled to have an unqualified opinion.

Rebranding is much more than repainting aircraft.
Every single permanently displayed logo needs to be changed, lots of manhours go into blabla, designing, even more blabla, even more designing.

You need to talk to each and every single airport in your network to let them know that your logo changed, for the billboards and screens and check-in machines, and check-in counter decoration; inform your handling companies one by one, send out the new logo's to travel agencies worldwide. It's a freaking nightmare multi-million euro operation of wasted money, while customers haven't gotten their refunds yet, staff are expected to be hyper productive and new staff is very hard to come by.

It looks like Michael Scott and Robert California are running SN nowadays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsfKSzlh_Bg

[oldblueeyes]

for a company with a natural range of sales around 400 mil EUR these are peanuts and not wasted money at all.

[oldblueeyes]

The biggest threat in such discussions is to look only on cost and not to the benefits.
PR is a cost effective way to create brand awareness and a logo change is a good reason to get unpaid brand exposure to the media, have a check where you stay in brand positioning at airports, booking portals etc. etc.

If Red Bull would be about cost only, they would never sponsor formula 1 and soccer teams, extreme or unusual sports or events like the guy jumping from the sky etc.

[b720]

The biggest threat in such discussions is to look only on cost and not to the benefits.
PR is a cost effective way to create brand awareness and a logo change is a good reason to get unpaid brand exposure to the media, have a check where you stay in brand positioning at airports, booking portals etc. etc.

If Red Bull would be about cost only, they would never sponsor formula 1 and soccer teams, extreme or unusual sports or events like the guy jumping from the sky etc.

All very true, but - as mentioned earlier- they owe people money! Their own clients. I for one, believe that they should refund those people before they embark on rebranding the company.

[oldblueeyes]

The biggest threat in such discussions is to look only on cost and not to the benefits.
PR is a cost effective way to create brand awareness and a logo change is a good reason to get unpaid brand exposure to the media, have a check where you stay in brand positioning at airports, booking portals etc. etc.

If Red Bull would be about cost only, they would never sponsor formula 1 and soccer teams, extreme or unusual sports or events like the guy jumping from the sky etc.

All very true, but - as mentioned earlier- they owe people money! Their own clients. I for one, believe that they should refund those people before they embark on rebranding the company.

Morally, this is correct.
The question is rather a legal one, what is the company entitled to do or not to do by law? If for any good reason the company is categorized as affected by COVID and thus entitled to roll out all legal aids to survive - including here freeze of debt or anything similar - they are acting perfectly legal, although morally and in terms of customer satisfaction not optimal.
And there is another aspect - there is a memorandum with the state in place - there would have been a formality for the government to secure eg against a loan refunding of tickets. Could it be that they were not well advised or Lufthansa simply had the better managers negotiating, despite of being in a defensive position?
Often in life you don't get what you deserve, but what you negotiated.

[Kapitein]

OOSNH to the paintshop, OOSSS is coming back today

[brusselsairlinesfan]

Why not considering Bamako, which is underserved ?

[Inquirer]

Why not considering Bamako, which is underserved ?

Incidentally, I don't know if you are aware, but Mali is considered the Afganistan of Africa...
I'd doubt it is a very lucrative and safe destination.

https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2021/11/22 ... il-sturen/

[jerry]

I confirmed something that I read by someone earlier (but did not want to believe): SN now charges for changing your (randomly?) allocated seat during check-in. 14 euro for standard seats and 20 for preferred. That is not the case in the rest of LH mainline group where seat selection still remains free upon checkin. It seems that they are converging to the mainline companies but keep the low-cost pervs?

[Homo Aeroportus]

Why not considering Bamako, which is underserved ?

Incidentally, I don't know if you are aware, but Mali is considered the Afganistan of Africa...
I'd doubt it is a very lucrative and safe destination.

https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2021/11/22 ... il-sturen/

Personally I put Mogadishu on the top step of your podium

Mali is indeed not my preferred destination for tourism and certainly not in the North where Timbuktu or Gao are just a no-go unless the journey is organized by the military.
But Bamako is fairly OK if you take standard security measures such as avoiding restaurants favoured by westerners and not staying in a big hotel of an international chain that exhibit signs of heightened security with guards and X-ray machines but will seldom resist an attack a la Mumbai.
Personally I stay at the Tamana in the Hippodrome area. Small but OK, friendly staff, great food, walled and guarded, not attracting target as few westerners stay in this type of hotel. And you're within walking distance of the Belgian Embassy where the DAS will take care of you if something hits the fan one day.

H.A.