Entry date SN in Star Alliance

[fretn]

When will it exactly happen?
no date yet?

cheers

[HighInTheSky]

Has been discussed already: official entry date is 9th December 2009, during the 2 day cermony in Brussels.

[cnc]

what about the groundhandling for LH and it its *alliance partners? atm still flightcare or aviapartner clients but with place for a 3th handler in 2011 it would a logical step forward for LH to start their own handling at BRU

[RCMike]

Brussels Airlines and Lufthansa renewed their contract with Flightcare beyond 2011...

[cnc]

handling startup takes a while and the new contracts are untill 2012 if i'm not mistaken

[flightlover]

Brussels airlines does its own check-in since a few months, so maybe they are shifting to a gradual start-up of ground ops. Hey, they already have a technics departement in bru as does LH but LH has with LSG also a catering devision.
But then again, AP had an integrated handeling service with catering, handling and cleaning but sold the catering and cleaning departement.

[Air Key West]

Too pitty that LH and SN have renewed their contracts with Flightcare after 2011 (for how long ?). I hate Flightcare checking agents and even more so Flightcare bagage handlers : they are among the least professionnel or there are not enough of them and then the blame is on the Flightcare management who want to save "coûte que coûte", regardless of the incoveniences to the pax. Friday I lfew back from MAD with IB and
at BRU a first batch of suitcases arrived after about twenty minutes, and then nothing for about another fifteen minutes. Then the bulk of the luggage arrived : I waited more than forty minutes for my suitcase. Great job, Flightcare, as usual....Time fo the LH Group to consider setting up their own ground handling services for when the current contracts expire.

[Cartman]

When negotiating these contracts, there is more than just the time the bags need to end up in the luggage hall. Prices, cargo-handling, cleaning... They're all a factor when it comes to choosing between own handling or having the job done by a handling company.

The passenger-handling (check-in and gate) is now in hands of SN (LH still uses Flightcare's services). That's mainly because PAX handling is not restricted to 2 or 3 handlers at BRU. Ground handling is a different story. There is a huge investment to make (equipment, storage space, staff hiring and -training, licences...), and this will only be done when the bookies show that it will pay back in (a relatively short) time. If it's too expensive for SN/LH to do it themselves, they will sign an new contract after 2011, probably for a lower price since they combine to a bigger costumer.

Concerning waiting time for luggage: it does not only depend on staffing (which I agree is sometimes a problem with FC and/or AP). Containers may be wrongly loaded (cargo in front of door e.g.) or containers sometimes get stuck (since the ULD guiding mechanism is not the main worry for maintenance budget). I'm not saying that handling at BRU is perfect (far from), but the state of the aircraft and the infrastructure in BRU (cfr. the never-used baggage/sorting belts beneath A-pier and the state of the equipment at baggage control) will be the same for FC, AP or LH/SN.

But in the end, only future will show the outcome.