Brussels Airlines is a flag carrier airline headquartered in the b.house on the grounds of Brussels Airport in Diegem, Machelen, Belgium and is a subsidiary of Lufthansa. It is the largest airline based in Belgium, operating to over 65 destinations in 20 European countries as well as long-haul flights to East, Central and West Africa. It operates charter services, maintenance and training of cockpit and cabin crew.^[1] The airline is a member of IATA, the Association of European Airlines (AEA) and Star Alliance.

History

Brussels Airlines was created following the merger of SN Brussels Airlines (SNBA) and Virgin Express. On 12 April 2005, SN Airholding, the company behind SNBA, signed an agreement with Richard Branson, giving it control over Virgin Express. On 31 March 2006 SNBA and Virgin Express announced their merger into a single company. On 7 November 2006, the new name, Brussels Airlines, was announced at a press conference at Brussels Airport. Brussels Airlines began operations on 25 March 2007.

In July 2008 it appeared that the Congolese project "AirDC" (launched together with Hewa Bora Airways) had been delayed, as the Congolese government had not given the required authorisations to start the new airline with Mauritian registered aircraft (through the Brussels Airlines owned and Mauritius based Pan African Airlines Leasing Company Ltd).^{[citation needed]}

On 15 September 2008 it was announced that Lufthansa would acquire a 45% stake in Brussels Airlines with an option to acquire the remaining 55% from 2011. As a part of this deal Brussels Airlines would join Star Alliance, which happened on December 9, 2009.^[2][3]

On 15 June 2009 Brussels Airlines announced that the European Commission had granted approval for Lufthansa to take over Brussels Airlines. As a result of this clearance by the EU, the road was cleared for Brussels Airlines to join Star Alliance. ^[4]

Since 25 October 2009 Brussels Airlines has been a member of Lufthansa's frequent flyer programme Miles & More.

On 9 December 2009, Brussels Airlines became the 26th Star Alliance member during a ceremony at Brussels Town Hall.

On 15 December 2009, Brussels Airlines officially approved an extra A330. In July 2010, Brussels Airlines received this fifth leased A330.

On 15 December 2009, Brussels Airlines announced they were working on a new regional airline in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The working name of the project is "Korongo". The main base of the airline will be at Lubumbashi in Congo. The airline will be launched in 2011. Brussels Airlines has cancelled the former airDC project, due to disagreements with Hewa Bora.

On 11 August 2010, Brussels Airlines and tour operator Club Med announced a new cooperation. As from April 2011, Brussels Airlines will transport 80% of all Club Med passengers out of Brussels, both on existing regular Brussels Airlines routes as on new charter routes operated by Brussels Airlines. Brussels Airlines also announced that it will lease 2 Airbus A320 aircraft from January 2011.^[5]

On 26 August 2010, the company announced its new maintenance project. The contract with Sabena Technics for the A330 and Boeing 737 ended on 1 January 2011 and Brussels Airlines will then do the maintenance on the planes. To be able to do this, the move from Building 117 to hangar 41 was necessary. Also 73 people from Sabena Technics joined the Brussels Airlines maintenance staff.

Company

Brussels Airlines is the operating name of Brussels Airlines SA/NV (previously Delta Air Transport S.A./N.V.^[6], which has its registered office in Ixelles, Brussels.^[7] Previously the registered office was in a different area of Brussels.^[6]

From 26 October 2008, the ICAO code was changed from DAT to BEL. On 3 June 2008, the CEO, Philippe Vander Putten resigned. The board appointed Michel Meyfroidt and Bernard Gustin as Managing Directors. Since the Star Alliance -entry in 2009, Bernard Gustin & Michel Meyfroidt carry the titles 'Co-Chief Executive Officer'.

Head office

The company is headquartered in the b.house (Building 26) in the General Aviation Zone on the grounds of Brussels Airport and in Diegem, Machelen.^[8][9][10] The airline asked the Belgian design agency MAXIMALdesign to design the interior of the facility.^[11]

Service

On European flights, the airline offers three types of tickets - b.flex economy+, b.light economy, and b.business (business class):

• b.light economy is a low cost formula, with a buy on board programme offering snacks and drinks for purchase.
• b.flex economy+ is the an economy plus class, offering full service, such as free newspapers, catering, fast lane at security, change flexibility and priority boarding.
• b.business is a full service Business class on the European network. It offers premium meals, free champagne and full flexibility.

On medium- and long-haul flights (Africa and Tel Aviv) Brussels Airlines offers normal economy and business classes.

Traffic

Brussels Airlines transported 4.89 million passengers (passengers of charter flights are not included) in 2010, this is a 4.4% increase^[12] compared to the 4.7 million in 2009. Brussels Airlines had 5.46 million passengers in 2008 and in the first year of operations (2007) as Brussels Airlines (after the merger between SN Brussels Airlines and Virgin Express), they carried 5.9 million passengers. 2011 seems to show a steady progress towards the heights experienced in 2007, validating the refocus the company has been going through in terms of fleet operations and destinations, with the backing of Lufthansa serving as a caution for future policies.

Frequent flyer programme

Brussels Airlines is an integrated partner of Lufthansa's frequent flyer programme called Miles & More. Miles can be earned on all the flights operated by airlines which adhere to the programme, in addition to the Star Alliance member airlines.^[13] Miles can also be earned thanks to Brussels Airlines' non-airline partners.^[14]

Brussels Airlines customers have been able to earn Miles and More benefits since October 25, 2009,^[15] when Brussels Airlines' former frequent flyer programme, Privilege, ended and became Miles & More. There was a conversion of Privilege Gold members into Miles & More Frequent Travellers, while Privilege Platinum card holders became Miles & More Senators. Privilege miles were converted on a 1 to 1 basis.

Destinations

On 5 July 2010, the fifth Airbus A330-300 entered into service. Brussels Airlines increased their frequency to Abidjan (up to 6 weekly) and added Accra, Cotonou, Ouagadougou and Lomé as new destinations.

Brussels Airlines is adding more American destinations to their network. Potential destinations include New York JFK, San Francisco and Boston. They have to get permission from the United States and they expect this to take 12 to 18 months.^[16] In July 2011, Brussels Airlines confirmed the commencement of non-stop flights to the United States from 2012 onwards.^[17] On 27 December 2011, Brussels Airlines confirmed the start of daily flights to New York- JFK. These flights will start on 01 June 2012 and will be operated daily with an Airbus A330-300, fitted with the new interior. This is the first Belgian airline in 10 years to fly to New York, after the collapse of Sabena and Delsey Airlines.

Since 10 January 2010, BMI Regional has operated from Bristol Airport and Newcastle Airport on behalf of Brussels Airlines, three times a day with an Embraer ERJ 145 to Brussels Airport and Brussels Airlines replaced its double daily flights to London Gatwick with four daily flights to London Heathrow, previously operated by BMI. Hannover is currently operated by a Bombardier Q400 of Tyrolean Airways.

Starting September 2011, Brussels Airlines is going to fly to their 21st African destination: Bamako, Mali.

The 3rd of June 2012 Berlin-Tegel Airport will be replaced by Berlin Brandenburg International Airport as Tegel Airport will be closed. The airline is also studying a potential North African expansion, with a direct link to Cairo International Airport and another to Alexandria International Airport being considered on the long term, in addition to the Moroccan links that have been opened in 2010. This has been confirmed on November 22, 2011, when a new collective agreement regarding staff relations and working hours was confirmed by the company regarding the Egyptian destinations, The launch dates are set to be announced during December.

At the end of November 2011, reports have confirmed a general reorganization of the companies destinations and "modus operandi" regarding them. The strongest signs of this change are to be found with the suppressions of flights to Palma de Mallorca and Sevilla. Less frequencies will be operated to Athens and Lisbon, On the other hand, more flights will be operated to Scandinavian airports, Moscow, Eastern European airports and Morocco, meaning that the only fleet changes resulting from this reform will be three mid-range planes whose leasing contracts will expire next year, meaning three Boeing 737's, which will accelerate the Airbus transformation of the mid-range fleet of the company. Finally, another long-haul African destination and, officially, an American destination have been programmed by Brussels Airlines. All those changes seem to indicate a desire by Brussels Airlines to operate more professionally through the creation of a professional feeder network in Europe and North America for long-haul flights to Africa, thus resulting in less flights to touristic destinations and more flights to "professional" destinations. Such a plan, according to the company, should permit the company to return to profit by 2014 and increase its share at Brussels Airport, in line with the 10% increase seen in 2011.

Codeshare agreements

Brussels Airlines has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:^[18]
(*) Star Alliance members

As Brussels Airlines joined Star Alliance, some code-share agreements with non-Star Alliance partners were terminated and replaced by Star Alliance members.^[19]

Fleet

As of August 2011, the Brussels Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft with an average age of 13.5 years^[20][21]:

History

Brussels Airlines previously operated 6 BAe 146-200s. These aircraft exited service in 2008 and 4 of them were up for sale. Two of them (OO-DJG, OO-DJH) have been sold. One of them (OO-DJE) is still stored at Brussels Airport. Two other (OO-DJJ & OO-MJE) were mentioned for AirDC, but that project has been cancelled. Instead they will go to the new airline Brussels Airlines is going to start in Congo "Korongo". The last remaining (OO-DJF) has been scrapped.

During 2009, the airline tested the fuel burn reduction of the AeroTech Services B737 Wing Modification on one B737-400. After realizing favorable results, the airline modified three more B737s in May and June 2010.

On 1 and 2 February 2010, Boeing 737-400 OO-VEJ was ferried to the USA (Phoenix) to return to its lessor. On 22 February, Boeing 737-400 OO-VBR was ferried to Macau to return to the lessor.

During 2010, two Airbus A319 aircraft (OO-SSC and OO-SSD) joined Brussels Airlines' fleet. OO-SSC is Brussels Airlines first Star Alliance logo jet.

The first Airbus A320 for Brussels Airlines joined the fleet in February 2011 and made its first commercial flight on 23 April 2011. In April 2011, a second A320 was delivered. These two A320s (registered OO-SNA and OO-SNB) are the ex D-ALTC and D-ALTD of Air Berlin^{[citation needed]}.

In March 2011, Boeing 737-300 OO-LTM ended commercial service for Brussels Airlines and was painted in Korongo Airlines livery.

Brussels Airlines also took delivery of 4 Airbus A319 in 2011: OO-SSR and OO-SSQ (coming from Mexicana), OO-SSU and OO-SSV (coming from easyJet).

With improving financial performances, rising cash reserves and a desire to reduce costs more rapidly, Brussels Airlines has accelerated their fleet replacement plan by ordering no more than 12 planes during the final days of August 2011. Six A319s, four A320s and 2 A330-200s will be added to the fleet in the coming two years, with an additional 2 regional planes. Such a plan will maybe complete the exit of the Boeing aircraft from the fleet, plus accelerate the replacement of the Avro RJ85. The Avro RJ100 will be kept for some time, due to higher seat capacity.

Livery and call sign

The aircraft livery consists of a 'dotted B' logo on the tail, a light blue belly covering the whole aircraft's length, with the name 'Brussels Airlines' written in dark blue on the upper fuselage, preceded by the airline's 'b' logo. Most planes have an altered 'b' logo after superstitious travellers complained about the thirteen dots bringing bad luck.^[22] The logo now contains fourteen dots. The Brussels Airlines call sign is BEE-LINE.

Inflight Entertainment

Brussels Airlines has two inflight magazines. For the European network there is b-there! which is a monthly magazine. On the African network, the magazine is named b-spirit! and is published every two months. Both magazines are available on board or as a PDF download through their respective websites. The magazines are also available as a freely downloadable application for Apple's iPad.^[23]

On the Airbus A330-300 fleet, Brussels Airlines has a personal IFE system in business class. In economy there are some video screens in the cabin. As from November 2011 until March/April 2012 Brussels Airlines will introduce a new interior on the A330-300 fleet. The new economy seats will feature AVOD personal inflight entertainement 9 inch screens. Also business class will get new seats with an improved AVOD IFE system with 15 inch screens. The two Airbus A330-200's that will come from Swiss will get the new interior later in 2012. So by the end of 2012 the whole long haul fleet will be fitted with new seats with a new AVOD IFE system.

See also

• List of airports in Belgium
• Transport in Belgium

References

External links

• Official website
• Official mobile website
• b.There! inflight magazine
• b.Spirit! inflight magazine
• Partner Website
• Brussels Airlines at YouTube