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Timeline |
Brussels Airlines (stylized as brussels airlines) is the flag carrier and largest airline of Belgium based and headquartered at Brussels Airport. It operates to over 90 destinations in Europe, North America and Africa and also offers additional charter services, maintenance and crew training. The airline is a member of the Star Alliance as well as the International Air Transport Association and the Association of European Airlines. The airline's IATA code SN is inherited from its predecessors, Virgin Express, Sabena and SN Brussels Airlines.
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.
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. From 26 October 2008, the ICAO code was changed from DAT to BEL.
On 15 June 2009, Brussels Airlines announced that the European Commission had granted approval for Lufthansa to take a minority share in Brussels Airlines. As a result of this clearance by the EU, the road was cleared for Brussels Airlines to finally join Star Alliance.
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. On the same day, Brussels Airlines announced it was working on a new regional airline in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The name of the airline was "Korongo". The main base of the airline is at Lubumbashi in Congo. The airline was launched in April 2012. Brussels Airlines has cancelled the former airDC project, due to disagreements with Hewa Bora.
On 5 July 2010, the fifth Airbus A330-300 entered into service. Brussels Airlines increased its frequency to Abidjan (up to 6 weekly) and added Accra, Cotonou, Ouagadougou, and Lomé as new destinations. 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.
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.
Brussels Airlines is adding more American destinations to its network. On 1 June 2012 Brussels Airlines inaugurated the route to New York JFK, operating 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 18 June 2013 they also fly 5 times a week to Washington Dulles. Since April 2016 Toronto Pearson has been added to the North-American network. It has been announced that as from March 2017 a new service to Mumbai will commence with 5 flights per week operated by a new Airbus A330-200 arriving early 2017.
On 30 January 2014, Brussels Airlines launched its most important expansion in its history, with nine confirmed seasonal destination and a return to the Polish market after some years of absence. It also confirmed the permanent exit of its Avro RJ100 fleet by 2016.
On 22 March 2016, members of the terrorist organization ISIL exploded two bombs in Brussels Airport, closing the airport until Sunday, 27 March 2016. Brussels Airlines shifted some long haul flights to Zurich and Frankfurt and began Airbus A319/Avro RJ100 shuttle service between Liege/Antwerp and Zurich/Frankfurt, as well as provided contracted bus service from Brussels to Antwerp and Liege from where it flew to European destinations.
On 28 September 2016, the Supervisory Board of Lufthansa announced that the airline would exercise the option to acquire the remaining 55% of Brussels Airlines' parent company SN Airholding. The modalities would be defined before the end of the year in order to conclude the transaction at the beginning of 2017.
Brussels Airlines is the operating name of Brussels Airlines SA/NV (previously Delta Air Transport SA/NV) which has its registered office in Elsene-Ixelles, Brussels.
Brussels Airlines is almost 100% owned by SN Airholding SA/NV (1,811,308 shares out of 1,811,309), a Belgian holding company of over 30 shareholders, including the Virgin Group, Fortis, ING, Suez, Tractebel, Brussels Airport, la Société Régionale d'Investissements Wallone (SRIW) and Société Régionale d'Investissements Bruxelloise (SRIB). In turn, SN Airholding SA/NV is 45% owned by Lufthansa AG.
Bernard Gustin has been the sole CEO (previously joint with Michel Meyfroidt) since June 2012. The Executive Committee consists of Gustin, Lars Redeligx (CCO) and Jan De Raeymaeker (CFO).
As of September 2016, the Brussels Airlines fleet consists of the following registered aircraft:
Aircraft | In Service | Orders | Passengers | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
J | Y | Total | ||||
Airbus A319-100 | 21 | 1 | — | 141 | 141 | One in Star Alliance livery. |
Airbus A320-200 | 9 | 2 | — | 180
180 |
180
180 |
One each in RedDevils, Tintin comics and Magritte livery. All aircraft to be reconfigured to 180 seats. |
Airbus A330-200 | 3 | 1 | 22 | 254 | 276 | |
Airbus A330-300 | 6 | — | 30 | 258 | 288 | |
Avro RJ100 | 7 | — | — | 97 | 97 | To be phased out by the end of 2017 |
Boeing 737-300 | 1 | — | — | 126 | 126 | |
Fokker 100 | 1 | — | — | 105 | 105 | Leased from Carpatair |
Total | 48 | 4 |
Brussels Airlines previously operated 6 BAe 146-200s which were withdrawn in 2008.
During 2009, the airline tested the fuel burn reduction of the AeroTech Services B737 Wing Modification on one Boeing 737-400. After realizing favorable results, the airline modified three more 737s in May and June 2010.
During 2010, two Airbus A319-100s joined Brussels Airlines' fleet. The first Airbus A320-200 joined the fleet in February 2011 and made its first commercial flight on 23 April 2011.
With improving financial performance, rising cash reserves and a desire to reduce costs more rapidly, Brussels Airlines accelerated their fleet replacement plan by ordering 12 aircraft in August 2011. Six A319s, four A320s and two A330-200s were added to the fleet. This has completed the exit of Boeing aircraft from the fleet and accelerated the replacement of the Avro RJ85.
The aircraft livery consists of a 'dotted B' logo on the blue tail, a white 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. The logo now contains fourteen dots. Besides the familiar blue, red and white livery, Brussels Airlines launched a series of special liveries in their Airbus A320 fleet, all representing things that are typically Belgian: Rackham (a Tintin themed aircraft), Magritte (an ode to the famous surrealist artist) and Trident (the aircraft for the Belgian national football team the Belgian Red Devils).
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