Brussels Airlines' fleet renewal

[lumumba]

I can say that SN did a hell of a job during the Winter already. Quite some planes had their maintenance and others their new livery. SN will be ready for a very busy Summer.

Remember how it was in 2023 when a lot of maintenance was canceled or moved to Spring and Summer?

Well done SN

Wel done ! Yess but since twoo weeks, eveyday they cancel a flight...As serious as they are on the European network, this is absolutely not the case on the intercontinental for years!

I have no idea why they cancel certain flights. Maybe lack of pax or crew or technical? Winter is a very slow moment for them intercontinental.

Also KLM warned already for the next Summer season that they will be forced to cancel quite some intercontinental flights bcs of shortage of flight crew.

Christmas and New Year are high periods it's not slow the planes are full....

[Homo Aeroportus]

There where again a lot of cancelations on the long haul the last 2 weeks!!!

Today, SN501 to JFK was cancelled again (OO-SFH)...

The plane's flight to Nairobi tomorrow is also cancelled.

Technical issue?

The unreliability of SN's long haul operations is becoming a real problem.

Problem might be with SFP that hasn't flown since Dec 30.
Also SFH back from MNL seems unavailable.

OO-SFH now planned for SN357 FIH on 09JAN.

Yesterday evening, it became apparent that OO-SFP would not be able to fly on 07JAN, after having being out of service since 31DEC.
She (Papa !) had been planned to operate SN223 to BJL today 07JAN, so Juliet was put on line instead.
But as Juliet had been planned to operate SN201 to DSS, she has been replaced by Echo.
But as Echo had been planned to operate SN379 to DLA, this flight has been cancelled last night.

At this moment, according to Brussels Airport web site, OO-SFP is planned for the SN491 to KGL-NBO tomorrow 08JAN. But on FR24 and on Flightstats.com Papa is to run SN277 to ACC, instead of Juliet.

Business as usual for SN Ops and Mx. Respect.

H.A.

[convair]

Today, SN501 to JFK was cancelled again (OO-SFH)...

The plane's flight to Nairobi tomorrow is also cancelled.

Technical issue?

The unreliability of SN's long haul operations is becoming a real problem.

Problem might be with SFP that hasn't flown since Dec 30.
Also SFH back from MNL seems unavailable.

OO-SFH now planned for SN357 FIH on 09JAN.

Yesterday evening, it became apparent that OO-SFP would not be able to fly on 07JAN, after having being out of service since 31DEC.
She (Papa !) had been planned to operate SN223 to BJL today 07JAN, so Juliet was put on line instead.
But as Juliet had been planned to operate SN201 to DSS, she has been replaced by Echo.
But as Echo had been planned to operate SN379 to DLA, this flight has been cancelled last night.

At this moment, according to Brussels Airport web site, OO-SFP is planned for the SN491 to KGL-NBO tomorrow 08JAN. But on FR24 and on Flightstats.com Papa is to run SN277 to ACC, instead of Juliet.

Business as usual for SN Ops and Mx. Respect.

H.A.

Sure. And they certainly go through quite a few headaches.

Most surprising is the long unavailabiity of SFH, after just returning from mx. It wasn't planned since she was scheduled to fly to JFK the day after its return.

[lumumba]

Problem might be with SFP that hasn't flown since Dec 30.
Also SFH back from MNL seems unavailable.

OO-SFH now planned for SN357 FIH on 09JAN.

Yesterday evening, it became apparent that OO-SFP would not be able to fly on 07JAN, after having being out of service since 31DEC.
She (Papa !) had been planned to operate SN223 to BJL today 07JAN, so Juliet was put on line instead.
But as Juliet had been planned to operate SN201 to DSS, she has been replaced by Echo.
But as Echo had been planned to operate SN379 to DLA, this flight has been cancelled last night.

At this moment, according to Brussels Airport web site, OO-SFP is planned for the SN491 to KGL-NBO tomorrow 08JAN. But on FR24 and on Flightstats.com Papa is to run SN277 to ACC, instead of Juliet.

Business as usual for SN Ops and Mx. Respect.

H.A.

Sure. And they certainly go through quite a few headaches.

Most surprising is the long unavailabiity of SFH, after just returning from mx. It wasn't planned since she was scheduled to fly to JFK the day after its return.

They seem to have decided to cancel New York, it's been three days now in a row it hasn't flown anymore.

[Homo Aeroportus]

......

At this moment, according to Brussels Airport web site, OO-SFP is planned for the SN491 to KGL-NBO tomorrow 08JAN. But on FR24 and on Flightstats.com Papa is to run SN277 to ACC, instead of Juliet.

Business as usual for SN Ops and Mx. Respect.

H.A.

The situation was clarified in the late afternoon : SN491 on 08JAN is cancelled.
And Papa remains in bed for the moment.

H.A.

[Boeing767copilot]

The landing gear of OO-SFP need to be changed due to a hard landing. This will lead to some cancellations, at least till next week.

[rwandan-flyer]

Thanks Boeing767copilot for the info. People will know understand that sometimes you can have some events which can lead to some disruptions especially if its takes time to get some spare parts. And it's not the fact that Brussels Airlines is not a poorly organized airline.

[crew1990]

Where we are more lucky in this particular case is that the landing gear was due to be changed this month anyway so the new landing gear was alreaydy order and delivered.

[longwings]

And it's not the fact that Brussels Airlines is not a poorly organized airline.

It makes sense to cancel JFK whenever there aren't enough aircraft to fly the schedule based on the number of alternatives alone for the passengers. What surprises me is Brussels has never, afaik, gotten a relief aircraft from a Lufty group carrier or someone like Wamos or Air Belgium (when that was an option) even for multiple-day cancellations. I wonder whether this is a strategic choice or the JFK yield isn't that good to begin with.

The second thing it that the provider of a product tends to deliver that what the core group or vast majority of it's target group appreciates. If one is outside this group but still using the product, obviously there would be some trade off in not getting your expectations fulfilled.

One example: we learned from interviews that on Africa routes, the average baggage per passenger is 60kg. Thus likely the expectation of the average traveller on those routes may be to be sure to get the luggage in the plane, to have a tariff with a fair pricing for heavy weights at cost of of let's say more frequencies with a A321LR. If one is flying business, this combination may be of course not ideal and one would see things other way round.

For any airline, calculating these trade-offs is the hardest part, as there are multiple metrics to analyze passenger trends, they rarely overlap, and deciding when to prioritize one metric over the others requires its own set of calculations. If 70% of passengers want one thing, and 30% want another mutually exclusive thing, but the 30% represent 60% of the revenue, who gets what they want? There is no easy answer to that question.

Add to that that passengers will make their individual trade-offs, and almost always operate with imperfect information skewing their trade-offs… That includes me when although I’d like to think I am reasonably well-informed, I found out only a month ago that the information I was using to weigh my decision to fly Brussels for long-haul was out-of-date by at least a year…

[rwandan-flyer]

And it's not the fact that Brussels Airlines is not a poorly organized airline.

It makes sense to cancel JFK whenever there aren't enough aircraft to fly the schedule based on the number of alternatives alone for the passengers. What surprises me is Brussels has never, afaik, gotten a relief aircraft from a Lufty group carrier or someone like Wamos or Air Belgium (when that was an option) even for multiple-day cancellations. I wonder whether this is a strategic choice or the JFK yield isn't that good to begin with.

I m not sure, but i think that the fact that United Airlines flies daily from Brussels to New York enables to Brussels Airlines to transfert some pax.

After i guess SN can rely on others airlines in the Star Alliance. For passengers flying to and from Africa, you have big choice :

Ethiopian via Addis, Lufthansa via FRA, Turkish via Istanbul, Egyptair via Cairo, TAP Air Portugal via Lisbon, or RwandAir with connecting at BRU (i don't know if they have still code share with SN, but probably interline agreements)

However sometimes you can fly on airline which are not in your alliance, where you don't have code share or interline agreements. In 2010, i was supposed to fly from Paris to Kigali via Amsterdam and Nairobi. However the AF flight from Paris to AMS was too delayed and I would have missed my connecting at AMS. The KQ flight from London was full and the next KQ flight from Paris was 2 days later. There were others routings but with Africans airlines with bad reputation. I think IOSA airlines avoid to book flights on non IOSA airlines.

So AF for free has booked me seat with....Lufthansa and Ethiopian, their main competitor. My new routing was Paris Frankfurt Addis Ababa Kigali

And on social network, i didn't see many people complain about cancelations (mainly bags pbs or refund), so i guess that SN has well handled the situation

But there is another pb, you have some fake account which are pretending to be from Brussels Airlines (you can see dozens on their FB page) and i m sure that some people talk to them to get new ticket. Of course ticket is fake and the new timetables also.

[oldblueeyes]

It makes sense to cancel JFK whenever there aren't enough aircraft to fly the schedule based on the number of alternatives alone for the passengers. What surprises me is Brussels has never, afaik, gotten a relief aircraft from a Lufty group carrier or someone like Wamos or Air Belgium (when that was an option) even for multiple-day cancellations. I wonder whether this is a strategic choice or the JFK yield isn't that good to begin with.

I would assume that as of today the whole LH group is very tight on long haul aircraft, due to the delivery delays of the contracted Boeing 789 and 779. As a consequence, all group airline may try to catch as much operations as possible from the available fleet.

On spare aircraft, i am not sure to which extend external providers may need to meet certain criteria. I think 2 years ago there were some A350 from Finnair flying for the LH Group as temporary wet leases, so this may obviously be an option. On the other hand, to which extend eg Wamos would meet the criteria, who knows?

[lumumba]

It makes sense to cancel JFK whenever there aren't enough aircraft to fly the schedule based on the number of alternatives alone for the passengers. What surprises me is Brussels has never, afaik, gotten a relief aircraft from a Lufty group carrier or someone like Wamos or Air Belgium (when that was an option) even for multiple-day cancellations. I wonder whether this is a strategic choice or the JFK yield isn't that good to begin with.

I would assume that as of today the whole LH group is very tight on long haul aircraft, due to the delivery delays of the contracted Boeing 789 and 779. As a consequence, all group airline may try to catch as much operations as possible from the available fleet.

On spare aircraft, i am not sure to which extend external providers may need to meet certain criteria. I think 2 years ago there were some A350 from Finnair flying for the LH Group as temporary wet leases, so this may obviously be an option. On the other hand, to which extend eg Wamos would meet the criteria, who knows?

United is flying 2 flights a day to Newark isn’t it?
With a 757.

[DannyVDB]

Only in the summer season (for the time being) ...

[lumumba]

Only in the summer season (for the time being) ...

But the last week it was flying.

[lumumba]

All long haul flights are going out tomorrow that's good news!

[Established02]

Expectedly St. Athan near Cardiff.

[BrightCedars]

Expectedly St. Athan near Cardiff.

This is so sad Hope there'll be a new Aerosmurf!

[A321Lufthansa]

How does the cabin of OO-SNP/SNQ look like? I've never seen a single trip report on a flight operated by them? Were they reupholstered to basic SN NEKs or do they still feature grey EW upholstery?

[Duke]

At least good news that the 40+ B737 Max planes on order by the LH Group seem to be going to Eurowings and not to SN...
But on the other hand, SN will probably not get a lot more new A320neo's than the ones that are scheduled now...
What will happen to the A320's that Eurowings is using now? Will they be transferred to SN?

[HQ_BRU_Lover]

How does the cabin of OO-SNP/SNQ look like? I've never seen a single trip report on a flight operated by them? Were they reupholstered to basic SN NEKs or do they still feature grey EW upholstery?

They have 174 seats iso the usual 180 according to brusselsairport.be, I don't have more details