Brussels Airlines joining Star Alliance in December 2009

[RoMax]

AF by the way, will have a press conference in Brussels next week to unveil their Africa plans

AF has already published its plans for Africa:

Yes indeed they published their AFI plans, but not yet in Brussels. SN did the same on monday they announced their 4 new destinations in Brussels and the day after they did the same in Paris. Same for AF, they did it first in Paris and now they will do it in Brussels.

[fretn]

Might be off-topic to post this,
but a experienced tripreporter on airliners.net has just posted a trip report about brussels airlines from Kinhasa to Brussels, and it was his best flight EVER up to date.
Good job Brussels Airlines!

(here's the link, quite decent and it shows the SN business class in all it's glory)
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forum ... in/165613/

i really suggest yo read this!

/Off-topic

[134flyer]

AF by the way, will have a press conference in Brussels next week to unveil their Africa plans

AF has already published its plans for Africa:

Yes indeed they published their AFI plans, but not yet in Brussels. SN did the same on monday they announced their 4 new destinations in Brussels and the day after they did the same in Paris. Same for AF, they did it first in Paris and now they will do it in Brussels.

Yes, that's what was meant (by 'De Tijd'); AF will present their Africa plans to the 'local Brussels journalists', just like SN/LH/LX did some time ago in Paris.

[134flyer]

Might be off-topic to post this,
but a experienced tripreporter on airliners.net has just posted a trip report about brussels airlines from Kinhasa to Brussels, and it was his best flight EVER up to date.
Good job Brussels Airlines!

(here's the link, quite decent and it shows the SN business class in all it's glory)
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-forum ... in/165613/

i really suggest yo read this!

/Off-topic

Very nice! Especially coming from a very experienced & highly respected a.net poster; always looking forward to his trip reports!

[TUB023]

it seems that TNT is interested to buy 2 146 planes to convert to cargo.

[sdbelgium]

One of them is probably OO-DJH, as this one was ferried back to Brussels today. IIRC a Kyrgiz airline would take it it up after the C-check in BCM, but they decided against it.

[TUB023]

ald i believe DJE aswell

[RoMax]

Let's say 1 year ago, the relationship between BRU and SN wasn't that good (especially with the former CEO of BRU). But now I read on the homepage of travel magazine.be the message:

While the entry of Brussels Airlines in Star Alliance is providing a new dynamic at Brussels Airport, other major carriers complain about favoritism from Brussels Airport compared to the home carrier.

Well you can say that the relationship between SN and BRU is improved very much the last months/year, but favoritism.
And further in that piece of text you can find:

In any case, more than 600 travel agents, corporate travel managers and travel professionals in mid-March will not escape to the ambitious plans of the world's largest airline alliance with a large-scale party, precisely at the Brussels airport!

Has anyone any idea what they mean with this "large-scale party" this month?

[cnc]

disco disco in the basement

[YYZ727]

Let's say 1 year ago, the band between BRU and SN wasn't that good

'the band' ? You might be referring to the relationship between BRU & SN ?

[RoMax]

Let's say 1 year ago, the band between BRU and SN wasn't that good

'the band' ? You might be referring to the relationship between BRU & SN ?

Yes indeed. That's what happens when I want to be to fast.

[Air Key West]

I'm not sure if a large-scale party will be "disco in the basement" at BRU, but they probably mean "een groot feest", "une grande fête".

[134flyer]

Perhaps slightly off-topic in this thread, but to come back to:

-The main target of SN & LH is to steal market share in Africa from the competition, i.e. mostly AF/KL. (AF by the way, will have a press conference in Brussels next week to unveil their Africa plans)

So AF have held their press conference in Brussels this Thursday about their Africa plans. Some highlights mentioned in yesterday’s ‘De Tijd’:

-SN/LH/LX used every opportunity these last months to stress that their combined network offering to Africa is the best on the Belgian market. Now it’s AF’s turn to highlight their position: ‘There is no discussion, we are and we will remain the biggest player on the Afican market! We offer the most destinations and the highest frequencies’. Also: ‘AF & KL both have a very complementary network; AF has 25 African destinations (excl. 4 North African destinations), KL has 13 destinations and AF & KL only share 4 of them. New destinations, like Bata in Eq. Guinea, will be added in the future.
-AF/KL controls 30% of the traffic from Europe to Africa.
-‘15% of the Belgium to Africa passengers chooses AF/KL, so we have the biggest market share (that is, after SN of course…)
-For AF/KL, Belgium is the 4th biggest market regarding Africa.

Nothing really new, but what was mentioned as well, was that in general, Africa is very high yield and that’s why AF (and SN/LH/LX and others) are very active on that market, even though Africa is e.g. only less than 10% of AF’s total revenue. Short term, it is expected to remain high yield, but in the longer term (even) more competition can be expected from carriers like KQ, ET and of course the Gulf carriers, who are all expanding in Africa as well.

[Conti764]

-‘15% of the Belgium to Africa passengers chooses AF/KL, so we have the biggest market share (that is, after SN of course…)
-For AF/KL, Belgium is the 4th biggest market regarding Africa.

Hm, the fourth biggest market for AF/KL, there is a lot of market for SN to take since I assume on non-ULH flights most people choose to fly directly... I think the marketshare of AF/KL in Belgium-Africa will decrease strongly.

Nothing really new, but what was mentioned as well, was that in general, Africa is very high yield and that’s why AF (and SN/LH/LX and others) are very active on that market, even though Africa is e.g. only less than 10% of AF’s total revenue. Short term, it is expected to remain high yield, but in the longer term (even) more competition can be expected from carriers like KQ, ET and of course the Gulf carriers, who are all expanding in Africa as well.

The Gulf carriers are not much of a threat to SN regarding Africa. Most transferpax on SN flights come from North-America and not a chance they would use a Gulf carrier if there is a European alternative. The backtracking is way to big...

[Air Key West]

I agree. BTW, wasn't the 5th A330 due to arrive on 10 March ?
1.Has anyone seen the "bird" already ?
2.Is it true it will get "old" business class seats ?
3.And with all that was said by AF at their press conference (higher yields to Africa etc...) isn't it time to think of a sixth A330 for SN for more flights to Africa ?

[RoMax]

I agree. BTW, wasn't the 5th A330 due to arrive on 10 March ?
1.Has anyone seen the "bird" already ?
2.Is it true it will get "old" business class seats ?
3.And with all that was said by AF at their press conference (higher yields to Africa etc...) isn't it time to think of a sixth A330 for SN for more flights to Africa ?

Well I hope they are already thinking about a sixth A330. A few months ago SN/LH said that the time is arrived for SN to grow more aggresively. So I hope they will do that. I think the main thing now is to increase frequencies to existing destinations with maybe 1 new destination (Bamako for exemple).

About the bussiness class on the fifth A330. Well I really hope it will not be old seats. I remember me when SN placed new seats in their at that time 3 A333's (in 2006). At that time they said these seats will be replaced again after 3-4 years (I suppose that's delayed mainly because of the crisis). After that time the technology of the seats would be verry out-dated they said. (Well that's correct, the IFE is not really the newest you can have)
So as they said that about the seats that are used for the moment, I would be verry suprised if they would use even older seats in their newest "flagship".

[Conti764]

So as they said that about the seats that are used for the moment, I would be verry suprised if they would use even older seats in their newest "flagship".

Last I've heard, it was an issue of availability. The current seats are out of production, so they'll probably use the old SN-seats...

[RoMax]

So as they said that about the seats that are used for the moment, I would be verry suprised if they would use even older seats in their newest "flagship".

Last I've heard, it was an issue of availability. The current seats are out of production, so they'll probably use the old SN-seats...

Yes I've heard that also. But can't they order a new type of seats (maybe for the whole A333 fleet). I know it's expensive but this is something you have to invest in. I can understand that they use the old seats for a short time (until end this year or so) until they can install brand new seats (with a new AVOD IFE). So does anyone knows if SN has ordered new seats for the A333 fleet and they will use the old Sabena seats until the new ones are arrived? Because I can't believe a LH group airline will fly with such old seats when they use newer seats in there other long haul aircraft.

[Air Key West]

I fully agree. If after having looked for an aircraft for (how long ?) more than a year and then realize you cannot get the seats you want, there is definitely something that has gone wrong. Someone did not do his job properly. Whatever, in such a case you don't buy "older" seats, you opt for newer and better seats, because if you offer a bad (outdated) product, you should not expect customers to come or to come back.
If this story is true, it would typically be b.air management. Like the ex AF A319 they leased without ovens.
Has anyone already seen the newest addition to the fleet at BRU?

[HighInTheSky]

Last I've heard, it was an issue of availability. The current seats are out of production, so they'll probably use the old SN-seats...

From who?

I can't believe a LH group airline will fly with such old seats when they use newer seats in there other long haul aircraft.

Neither can I...

Also... Where did everybody get the idea that OO-SFV would arrive on the 10th of March? Is there someone with a new and educated guess about a new date?