Tag Archives: Belgian Red Devils

Record passenger numbers for Brussels Airlines in 2017

Brussels Airlines has issued this statement:

Brussels Airlines welcomed 9.1 million passengers on board its flights in 2017, an increase of 17.2% compared to the previous year. The passenger load factor grew to a record average of 78.5% throughout the year.

Brussels Airlines closes 2017 with a total of 9,077,178 passengers, a record in the company’s 15 year history. The 1.3 million additional passengers were welcomed throughout the entire network. All sectors showed significant growth, with the highest increase recorded on the European network (+16.7%), followed by the Middle East (+14.3%), North America (+14.0%) and Africa (+13.2%), where the airline passed the 1 million passenger mark for the first time. With Mumbai, Brussels Airlines opened its first Asian destination in 2017. The new route attracted 80,450 passengers since the first flight on March 30.

Brussels Airlines’ strong passenger growth is mainly due to the increased productivity of its fleet, the replacement of Avro aircraft (100 seats) by bigger Airbus A320 (180 seats) and the integration of Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium’s activities . On its long-haul network, the airline added an additional Airbus A330 to its fleet to operate the new Mumbai route and to increase the number of flights to African destinations. The pressure on airline ticket prices remained very high in 2017. Thanks to its increased offer, Brussels Airlines was able to continue to propose competitive fares and attract even more customers.

Brussels Airlines invested heavily in its leisure offer in 2017, as it continues to do in 2018, when the airline adds 26 summer holiday destinations to its network, thanks to the intensified cooperation with Thomas Cook Belgium.

The seat offer (ASK) grew by 14.5%, but the number of passengers grew faster, resulting in a seat load factor of 78.5%, the highest ever recorded for Brussels Airlines.

Brussels Airlines Cargo showed very positive results as the Revenue Ton-Kilometers grew by 22.6% and the cargo load factor increased by 10.3 percentage points, amounting to 67.7%. The cargo volumes increase is due to several initiatives to better forecast the belly capacity and therefore maximize the use hereof, and the addition of Mumbai as a destination.

	Year	Year	VLY difference in %
	Total 2017	Total 2016	VLY difference in %
Flights	81,582	76,685	6.4%
Total Passengers	9,077,178	7,747,576	17.2%
— Passengers Europe	7,444,458	6,379,900	16.7%
— Passengers Africa	1,022,958	903,853	13.2%
— Passengers North America	331,294	290,517	14.0%
— Passengers Middle East	198,018	173,306	14.3%
— Passengers Asia	80,450	/	/
Available seat-kilometers (ASK)	19,425,209,619	16,969,546,031	14.5%
Revenue Passenger-Kilometers (RPK)	15,257,102,851	12,693,728,415	20.2%
Passenger Load Factor (%)	78.5%	74.8%	3.7%pt
Available Ton-Kilometers (ATK)	2,317,515	2,019,449	14.8%
Revenue Ton-Kilometers (RTK)	1,770,261	1,443,553	22.6%
Cargo Load Factor (%)	67.7%	57.4%	10.3%pt
These figures are based on preliminary data currently available

December 2017

December was again a month of growth for Brussels Airlines, although this growth was slowed down by the winter weather conditions and subsequent temporary closure of Brussels Airport on 11 December, which forced the airline to cancel 218 flights.

In total, Brussels Airlines welcomed 644,545 passengers on board its flights in December, an increase of 9.2% compared to the same month in 2016. Brussels Airlines was able to attract 6.6% more passengers on its European flights, thanks to its large network choice.
The slight decrease on the Transatlantic network (-2.6%) is due to the fact that there is a lower flight frequency on the Toronto route compared to 2016. The decrease on the Middle East sector (-6.2%) is due to winter cutbacks on the Tel Aviv route.

The significant growth on the African sector (+17.3%) is mainly due to the start of the intensified partnership with Thomas Cook Belgium in October, which added 5 new winter holiday destinations in North Africa to Brussels Airlines’ network.

Brussels Airlines Cargo recorded a significant increase in its transported volumes (+22.5%) and reached a Cargo load factor of 74.1% (+8.0 percentage points).

These statistics do not include the passengers on board of the chartered flights operated by Brussels Airlines for third parties.

	Month	Month	VLY difference in %
	Dec-17	Dec-16	VLY difference in %
Flights	5,491	5,987	-8.3%
Total Passengers	644,545	589,886	9.3%
— Passengers Europe	504,786	473,392	6.6%
— Passengers Africa	96,671	82,405	17.3%
— Passengers North America	20,931	21,483	-2.6%
— Passengers Middle East	11,819	12,606	-6.2%
— Passengers Asia	10,338		/
Available seat-kilometers (ASK)	1,512,841,426	1,336,426,822	13.2%
Revenue Passenger-Kilometers (RPK)	1,167,841,799	976,454,575	19.6%
Passenger Load Factor (%)	77.2%	73.0%	4.2%pt
Available Ton-Kilometers (ATK)	181,921	160,136	13.6%
Revenue Ton-Kilometers (RTK)	139,569	113,901	22.5%
Cargo Load Factor (%)	74.1%	66.1%	8.0%pt
These figures are based on preliminary data currently available

Copyright Photo: Brussels Airlines Airbus A320-214 OO-SNA (msn 1441) BRU (Belgian Red Devils) BRU (Javier Rodriguez). Image: 932898.

Brussels Airlines aircraft slide show:

Lufthansa to take over 100% of Brussels Airlines, will be joining the Eurowings Group

Lufthansa has issued this statement:

Deutsche Lufthansa AG takes over 100 percent of SN Airholding
Brussels Airlines to be fully integrated into the Lufthansa Group as of 2018 and joining the Eurowings Group
Attractive home markets Belgium and Brussels and well-established Africa network will further strengthen the Lufthansa and Eurowings Group market position
Advantageous cost-structure allowing Brussels Airlines to successfully compete with the tough low-cost competition in the Belgian market

After Lufthansa and the shareholders of SN Airholding had agreed on the terms of the complete takeover, Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s Executive Board on December 14, 2016 decided to exercise the call option for the outstanding 55 percent of the shares. The call option comes into effect by December 31, 2016. The closing of the transaction will happen by the beginning of January 2017.

The price mechanism for the take-over of the remaining 55 percent of the shares had already been part of the agreement for the call option in 2008. The price for the acquisition of the remaining 55 percent of the shares is 2.6 million euros, which will be paid to a consortium of 30 shareholders.

Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Executive Board and CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG: “Following the acquisition of the 45 per cent share of SN Airholding eight years ago, we now want to take a next step in our already very solid and successful cooperation. As a longstanding shareholder and partner of Brussels Airlines, we are already closely linked to each other. Accordingly, we value Belgium and especially Brussels as highly attractive markets that perfectly complement our offer in the heart of Europe. In addition, Brussels Airlines has a competitive cost structure already and brings a well-established long-haul network, especially to and from Africa, to the Lufthansa Group portfolio. We also very much appreciate the high qualification, motivation and performance of the 3,500 Brussels Airlines employees.”

After the acquisition, Brussels Airlines will continue to operate its 23 long-haul destinations as well as 79 destinations within Europe under the umbrella of the Eurowings Group.

The brand ‘Brussels Airlines’ will be complemented by the claim “Member of the Eurowings Group”. The common goal of Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines is to further strengthen the market position in the Belgian Airline market.

The current fleet harmonization towards an Airbus A320 family fleet for the European network will be continued. With its fleet of 42 short- and medium-haul aircraft and nine A330 long-haul aircraft, Brussels Airlines has significantly increased the number of its passengers. From 2013 to 2015 only, this number has increased by 30 per cent to a total of 7.5 million passengers. In the medium term, investments are planned to further improve the fleet-efficiency and increase the capacity on the short- and long-haul network.

In the past three years, Brussels Airlines has reduced its non-fuel unit costs by almost ten per cent and established sustainably efficient structures. For the financial year 2015, the leading Belgian airline generated an operating profit of 43.4 million euros. With the full integration of Brussels Airlines, synergies are to generate up to a mid-double digit million euro contribution per year. In the short-term, integration costs may burden earnings at first.

In the future, Brussels Airlines will assume an important role in the further development of the Eurowings Group into a pan-European platform. In order to personally accompany the integration process, Carsten Spohr will join the Brussels Airlines Board as Co-Chairman, next to Viscount Etienne Davignon. Unchanged, three further Belgian members will belong to the Board. The Brussels Airlines Management Board remains unchanged under the leadership of CEO Bernard Gustin. In addition an Advisory Council will be established and will support the integration process.

Copyright Photo: Brussels Airlines Airbus A320-214 OO-SNC (msn 1797) (Belgian Red Devils) GVA (Paul Denton). Image: 934664.