BRU Summer 2023: news, new routes, airlines

[VoloperTe]

Hainan Airlines will resume non-stop flights to Beijing as the airline will remove stopovers in Xi'an and Chongqing, still 4x weekly 787-9.

Miqvell you were faster than me for this news !

Good to see ANA and Hainan Airlines back in Brussels !! Any news for Thai Airways flights between Brussels and Bangkok ??

[Miqvell]

Hainan Airlines will resume non-stop flights to Beijing as the airline will remove stopovers in Xi'an and Chongqing, still 4x weekly 787-9.

Miqvell you were faster than me for this news !

Good to see ANA and Hainan Airlines back in Brussels !! Any news for Thai Airways flights between Brussels and Bangkok ??

Hahaha

Nope, no news on Thai Airways and sadly, Brussels was recently removed from the destinations page on their website...

KF to BKK, PR to MNL and HO to PVG are still pending approval

[VoloperTe]

Hainan Airlines will resume non-stop flights to Beijing as the airline will remove stopovers in Xi'an and Chongqing, still 4x weekly 787-9.

Miqvell you were faster than me for this news !

Good to see ANA and Hainan Airlines back in Brussels !! Any news for Thai Airways flights between Brussels and Bangkok ??

Hahaha

Nope, no news on Thai Airways and sadly, Brussels was recently removed from the destinations page on their website...

KF to BKK, PR to MNL and HO to PVG are still pending approval

I don't understand the decision of Thai to remove Brussels!!! Before covid crisis Thai Airways flying from Brussels up to 4×/week with good passenger load factor and now nothing ??!
Big mystery....

[sn26567]

I don't understand the decision of Thai to remove Brussels!!! Before covid crisis Thai Airways flying from Brussels up to 4×/week with good passenger load factor and now nothing ??!
Big mystery....

No mystery at all. Thai Airways International had huge financial problems and was on the brink of bankruptcy. The airline had to sell many of its planes and get an infusion of money from the State. It keeps only the most promising routes for the moment.

[VoloperTe]

I don't understand the decision of Thai to remove Brussels!!! Before covid crisis Thai Airways flying from Brussels up to 4×/week with good passenger load factor and now nothing ??!
Big mystery....

No mystery at all. Thai Airways International had huge financial problems and was on the brink of bankruptcy. The airline had to sell many of its planes and get an infusion of money from the State. It keeps only the most promising routes for the moment.

Thanks to share this news sn26567 i was unaware the financial crisis of Thai Airways International.

[Airbus330lover]

I don't understand the decision of Thai to remove Brussels!!! Before covid crisis Thai Airways flying from Brussels up to 4×/week with good passenger load factor and now nothing ??!
Big mystery....

No mystery at all. Thai Airways International had huge financial problems and was on the brink of bankruptcy. The airline had to sell many of its planes and get an infusion of money from the State. It keeps only the most promising routes for the moment.

Thanks to share this news sn26567 i was unaware the financial crisis of Thai Airways International.

During my stopover in BKK 10 days ago, i saw a lot of widebodies parked, some without protection. Not sure they will fly again (a lot of 747 + A388, + 33X). But they fly MXP.....

[JOVAN2]

No mystery at all. Thai Airways International had huge financial problems and was on the brink of bankruptcy. The airline had to sell many of its planes and get an infusion of money from the State. It keeps only the most promising routes for the moment.

Thanks to share this news sn26567 i was unaware the financial crisis of Thai Airways International.

During my stopover in BKK 10 days ago, i saw a lot of widebodies parked, some without protection. Not sure they will fly again (a lot of 747 + A388, + 33X). But they fly MXP.....

Thai Airways is essential to the Thai businessn so the Thai Governement and Royal house will do everything to make the airline survive.
The airlines from Qatar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Turkey will anyway take the biggest part of the BRU-BKK route if business and tourist come back.
Very difficult for Air Belgium to fight against these mologs...

Everytime I took the TG flight back to Brussels, it was a full plane.

[DannyVDB]

Hi all,

I lost a bit the overview, so put it together for myself, but please correct or add details if you have it somewhere

1. More European flights or 'new' destinations/routes for Brussels, Transavia, Corendon, Easyjet, Vueling, Eurowings (Stuttgart?) ... (confirmed)
- Not so clear for TUI
- We know for Brussels it is a capacity increase of 10%
- What is the capacity increase for the others, does it off-set with the capacity decrease of Ryanair?
- Any other 'traditional' airlines with extra capacity, LH, SR, OS, BA, TP, ITA ... ?
2. Intercontinental (confirmed):
- Air Canada, Toronto, 5f/w
- Ethiopian, Addis Ababa, 7/w (going to direct)
- ANA Airlines, Tokyo, 7/w
- Hainan Airlines, Beijing, 4/w (going to direct)
- Additional flights from Emirates and Qatar Airways
3. Intercontinental ('possibly')
- Royal Jordan, Amman
- Juneyao, Shanghai
- Philippines Airlines, Manila
- Air Belgium, Bangkok

Others were rumored as well, but rather vague, no?

I guess I miss a few ...

Cheers,
Danny

[longwings]

- Philippines Airlines, Manila

Just why? Wasn't PAL planning on joining OneWorld? Did that fall through? Granted LHR and HEL are not ideal connecting airports to/from points East of Europe, but still puzzling. If it happens, this flight will live or die on the strength of connecting traffic through BRU. Great for Brussels Airlines but most of PAL's long-haul traffic is VFR and exported labour. Typically the market Ethiad, Emirates, etc. serve well already.

[TLspotting]

Ryanair closes Brussels Airport base, via Belga.

[luchtzak]

Ryanair closes Brussels Airport base, via Belga.

The airline will cut 4 routes, and keeps 12 routes. More information: https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/ryan ... -at-stake/

[VoloperTe]

Ryanair closes Brussels Airport base, via Belga.

The airline will cut 4 routes, and keeps 12 routes. More information: https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/ryan ... -at-stake/

Hi everybody,

Pity that Ryanair doesn't reopen it's Zaventem base and cut 4 destinations ! I no more see Lisbon, maybe a good opportunity with the rumors of Easyjet to link Brussels and Lisbon ?
I think that Ryanair will no more growth and not open new destinations from Brussels in the future...

[brabel]

SN loses some competition to Lisbon, Milan and Alicante. Good news for them I suppose.
They should take over Amman (if Royal jordanian) doesn't open the route.

I remember the day Ryanair arrived at BRU, claiming that they would slay SN into bankruptcy.
Guess MOL was wrong about that...

[Inquirer]

I remember the day Ryanair arrived at BRU, claiming that they would slay SN into bankruptcy.
Guess MOL was wrong about that...

A fact noted by 'De Tijd' too:
https://www.tijd.be/politiek-economie/b ... 39690.html

As all those who've been around here for some time will probably still remember, I've always been quite sceptical about the megalomanic claims made by the CEO of Ryanair in BRU.

It was obvious quite early on things were not going the way they were supposed to and with resources spread out very thinly at RyanAir, as soon as unexpected headwind is encountered to any plan to drive out a local competitor quickly, the capacity dumping strategy must be paused.
When there's a standstill in the growth of revenues however it just doesn't fit into their concept any longer as no extra cash is generated to fund further growth with let alone money is being made. RyanAir can't invest hundreds of millions of euro building a single base, they need to generate a positive cash flow all the time, if not from day 1, then almost from day 2.

Well done.
LH basically managed to kick them out of FRA too, so that's the second time MOL loses against the Lufthansa group when going heads on.
The power of having loads of higher yielding corporate passengers which are out of reach to MOL, an attractive network and a good cost basis seems to be the trick to kick RyanAir out, despite commanding higher prices.

[lumumba]

I remember the day Ryanair arrived at BRU, claiming that they would slay SN into bankruptcy.
Guess MOL was wrong about that...

A fact noted by 'De Tijd' too:
https://www.tijd.be/politiek-economie/b ... 39690.html

As all those who've been around here for some time will probably still remember, I've always been quite sceptical about the megalomanic claims made by the CEO of Ryanair in BRU.

It was obvious quite early on things were not going the way they were supposed to and with resources spread out very thinly at RyanAir, as soon as unexpected headwind is encountered to any plan to drive out a local competitor quickly, the capacity dumping strategy must be paused.
When there's a standstill in the growth of revenues however it just doesn't fit into their concept any longer as no extra cash is generated to fund further growth with let alone money is being made. RyanAir can't invest hundreds of millions of euro building a single base, they need to generate a positive cash flow all the time, if not from day 1, then almost from day 2.

Well done.
LH basically managed to kick them out of FRA too, so that's the second time MOL loses against the Lufthansa group when going heads on.
The power of having loads of higher yielding corporate passengers which are out of reach to MOL, an attractive network and a good cost basis seems to be the trick to kick RyanAir out, despite commanding higher prices.

Exactly.

[nordikcam]

When does start the AC flight BRU YYZ and vv. Codeshare with SN or not ? Thank's.

[longwings]

The power of having loads of higher yielding corporate passengers which are out of reach to MOL, an attractive network and a good cost basis seems to be the trick to kick RyanAir out, despite commanding higher prices.

An airport that doesn't give preferential treatment to Ryanair also helps (the competition).
Historically Ryanair is much better at stimulating new demand in a market not served by any airline than grabbing a share of an existing market. Creating new demand requires very low fares to attract passengers for whom the alternative is not flying with a competitor, but staying home. This in turn requires the kind of low operational costs typically not found in already established markets.
Ryanair's customers are also more more price sensitive than others and the airline run very efficiently already, so it finds it difficult to raise prices and/or cut costs in response to inflation.

[fcw]

LH basically managed to kick them out of FRA too, so that's the second time MOL loses against the Lufthansa group when going heads on.
The power of having loads of higher yielding corporate passengers which are out of reach to MOL, an attractive network and a good cost basis seems to be the trick to kick RyanAir out, despite commanding higher prices.

MOL is only interested by the bottom line on the balance sheet.
It’s not Lufty who kicked him out, it’s the opportunity to make more money elsewhere which caused the closure of the base in Brussels.

[lumumba]

LH basically managed to kick them out of FRA too, so that's the second time MOL loses against the Lufthansa group when going heads on.
The power of having loads of higher yielding corporate passengers which are out of reach to MOL, an attractive network and a good cost basis seems to be the trick to kick RyanAir out, despite commanding higher prices.

MOL is only interested by the bottom line on the balance sheet.
It’s not Lufty who kicked him out, it’s the opportunity to make more money elsewhere which caused the closure of the base in Brussels.

And less money here because Lufty!

[JOVAN2]

Hi JOVAN2,

Was a typo, it is CIS. Some of those countries are against Russia already for years. Some others have now, like Azerbaijan, much closer ties with Europe. Moldova has already a connection with BRU.

All this CIS countries have a bad reputation really. Some are really mafia-countries with very bad credit ratings.
Murders, kidnappings of Western tourist who go for the " new frontiers"
Maybe now they want to separate from their Russian friends , there can be an overnight coup d'état and you lose everything.

Armenia was a good idea of Freddy Van Gaver when he started VG airlines and connected Yerevan with LAX via BRU.
California has a huge Armenian community with the Kardashians as best known clan.

But getting your money from this former CIS countries is a real trouble.