Brussels Airlines

[TM3]

I think there is a big jump to go from the above new to the assumption that BHX is destined to become a leisure only airport.

I think your right in so-far that Covid and the loss of business travel will continue to change travel trends from airports like BHX. But as well as BHX, this will impact on the smaller business/national carrier.

Brussels used to be a big connector from BHX into Africa, however when looking on Google flights to the likes of BHX-ABJ/ACC/LAD/NBO (all of which are key African routes for Brussels), you have the likes of Air France/KLM, Turkish, Lufthansa, Qatar, Emirates and even Saudi all coming up as better options than Brussels. Consequently, with consolidation happening all over aviation with Lowcost of massive hub operators in Europe, and the big global connectors in the Middle East (which BHX has more now than it has ever had), the question is where does the likes of Brussels airlines fit...? They are not business premium, they are not high frequency and they are not low cost. its a brutal battle ground for sure...

Yes Brussels did used to operate 4x daily out of BHX in the past but that was long before RYR/EZY/Jet2 had the european leisure market covered and the likes of LH/AF/KL/QR/TK/EK/SV had the global connections covered.

Good post, I agree on budget carriers, more European destinations are now covered direct and these were the ones that SN used to offer some competitive connections.

You pays your money you takes yer choice. Most flyers, even in business, prefer direct on a budget carrier to 1 stop full service for short haul.

I agree on Africa also put I think this is partly a symptom of SN being weak in terms of influence in the LH group. There have been a lot of changes in alliances and ownership since Covid, eg SAS, Virgin have joined Skyteam. Maybe SN would be a good acquisition of BA/IAG at One World is missing a central European carrier of note.

 

[mullion]

Personally I think Brussels is more of a hit because of Brexit, most EU traffic has gone all over UK to BRU and Strasburg

 

[Seasider]

Surely it has got to be because of Brexit. Very little point to point travel for "EU business". Covid has not helped, but we are no longer in the EU and Brussels is their HQ.

 

[Brum X]

Whatever the reason, news like this makes me sad ;-(

First Aegean, next SAS hardly jumping for joy and now Brussels Airlines ;-(

Oh and WIZZ

 

[Kevin Farnell]

I don't believe it has much to do with BREXIT. The vast majority of travel for EU purposes, would be between political centres, in the UK's case, London and Brussels/Strasbourg (and to a lesser extent, Luxembourg). If a good proportion of traffic between Birmingham and Brussels was historically EU related, then you would expect similar demand between Birmingham and Strasbourg, as the EU continues it's ludicrously stupid and expensive switch of power between Brussels and Strasbourg 12 times per year. In each switch, all personnel and documents have to be transported from one to the other at huge expense. Also, all EU votes must take place in Strasbourg, so everything moves again.
To me, the drop in pax to Brussels, is mainly due to greater choice from BHX of onward transit through other hubs. As said above, very little point to point traffic BHX - BRU, but also very little traffic related to the EU.

 

[mullion]

Both my wife and I worked in business travel at the same agency and between us had at least 5 to 10 pax a day related to EU from MAN ie MEP and staff plus a lot of business people going to meetings, I can`t speak for BHX as were both MAN based but I`m sure it would have been similar so yes it was very important.

Just beeen having a chat with my wife and Brussels was out busiest European route from our agency most of which was EU related

 

[TM3]

I remember flying SN a few times on BAe 146 but they don't have anything of that size now. They also experimented with the Sukhoi Superjet, which they no longer use, I assume at least partly due to the Russian embargo.

As such it might also be partly equipment related.

 

[tompo]

I don't believe it has much to do with BREXIT. The vast majority of travel for EU purposes, would be between political centres, in the UK's case, London and Brussels/Strasbourg (and to a lesser extent, Luxembourg). If a good proportion of traffic between Birmingham and Brussels was historically EU related, then you would expect similar demand between Birmingham and Strasbourg, as the EU continues it's ludicrously stupid and expensive switch of power between Brussels and Strasbourg 12 times per year. In each switch, all personnel and documents have to be transported from one to the other at huge expense. Also, all EU votes must take place in Strasbourg, so everything moves again.
To me, the drop in pax to Brussels, is mainly due to greater choice from BHX of onward transit through other hubs. As said above, very little point to point traffic BHX - BRU, but also very little traffic related to the EU.

In my opinion ( and experience) the dramatic drop in demand is entirely due to Brexit. Brussels is de facto the capital of Europe being the HQ of The EU Commission and numerous other related governmental institutions, the Commission alone supports 100,000 jobs. It therefore developed naturally as the European HQ’s for many global companies requiring access to the Commission in particular for inter-governmental facing relationships. The number of companies that had need of constant access cannot be underestimated. I had a Japanese client which set up its HQ there for the very reason, yet their biggest manufacturing plant and administration was, by far, located in the UK. One has to be reminded that the tentacles of the EU bureaucratic machine permeated almost every part of everyday working life including industry, imports/exports, agriculture, safety, indirect taxation, law making, etc etc. It follows, that when Brexit was finally completed, the passengers, for example; lawyers, accountants, technicians, etc who used to accompany me on a regular basis from BHX to BRU disappeared overnight. Regarding transiting pax, Sabena suffered many operating issues for a considerable time. In particular, its African destinations became an issue and Paris plus Dubai developed as preferential locations for onward travel.

 

[Birmingham Aviation]

So I was expecting to be honest.Remember last summer they used CRJ9 every week.Im not surprised

 

[Scania1800]

So I was expecting to be honest.Remember last summer they used CRJ9 every week.Im not surprised

“last summer”

 

[Kevin Farnell]

In my opinion ( and experience) the dramatic drop in demand is entirely due to Brexit.

So, why is this only showing now on the BRU service, 4 years after we officially left the EU?

 

[TM3]

There was surely a lot more Brussels traffic than you give credit for with grants of EU money to various projects.

The people mover between BHX and Birmingham International was paid for with a grant from the EU, however it was build and installed by a German company.

The EU plaque is still there but for some reason the bit about the German company being paid has now gone. Not sure why the airport sees the need to put up a plaque to EU funding now we have left the EU, particularly as they seem to have taken the time to remove the the reference to the German company that was the ultimate beneficiary of the money.

 

[mullion]

Because the loads for all UK airports have dropped and added drop in business pax it has just got to the tipping point for BHX

 

[rollo]

I think the decision to pull this route is down to three things in particular all of which are effecting Brussels and the other legacy European carriers.

1.
As stated by others --- Covid, this has bought about a huge increase in the working from home culture and along with the ever growing influence of the Internet reduced the need for travel for business. I think that particularly effects Brussels A/Lroute as Brussels itself is not really a tourist destination as is Belgium as a whole except for Bruge.

2
The continued rise of the low cost airlines particularly Ryanair and EasyJet whose low prices and an ever growing list of destinations giving more choice just look at the number of destinations from BHX compared to ten yerars ago. In addition Amsterdam has EasyJet double daily and Ryanair and EasyJet to Paris. They offer many more options for the short break/leisure Market than the legacies ever can.

3.
The Middle Eastern carriers are picking off the long haul traffic going east and south so effecting the the big hubs in Europe while the M40 collects most of the West Midlands traffic crossing the Atlantic.

There was surely a lot more Brussels traffic than you give credit for with grants of EU money to various projects.

The people mover between BHX and Birmingham International was paid for with a grant from the EU, however it was build and installed by a German company.

The EU plaque is still there but for some reason the bit about the German company being paid has now gone. Not sure why the airport sees the need to put up a plaque to EU funding now we have left the EU, particularly as they

Finally I think Brexit must play a part but not that much given the amount of options now available with other airlines (even Jet2 and Tui have decent city break offers these days) although Brussels would be disproportionately effected.

Regarding the EU funding the MAGALEV I'd point out the EU doesn't have any money it has other governments money who in turn also don't have any money they have our money. So in effect we paid a German company to build us a monorail that actually never worked properly and was replaced probably from overseas company well.

Some of these posts including this one are moving away in part from specifically Brussels Airlines so may be better elsewhere- down to the mods.

 

[gulftraveller]

I too doubt that Brexit is a major factor. Brussels A/L’s European connections are not hugely relevant to a UK market as the UK L/Cs cover most destinations Brussels fly to. As for long haul, the passenger flow to SN’s niche destinations in Africa has always been thin. They cover destinations where there is little UK traffic, and those destinations of interest to UK travellers in Africa e.g. Lagos or Abuja are not covered.

 

[mullion]

Just beeen having a chat with my wife and Brussels was our busiest European route from our agency most of which was EU related

 

[nwoody2001]

I too doubt that Brexit is a major factor. Brussels A/L’s European connections are not hugely relevant to a UK market as the UK L/Cs cover most destinations Brussels fly to. As for long haul, the passenger flow to SN’s niche destinations in Africa has always been thin. They cover destinations where there is little UK traffic, and those destinations of interest to UK travellers in Africa e.g. Lagos or Abuja are not covered.

Yet now those routes in Africa you list where SN had a niche are now covered very well through the likes of Turkish and Qatar… if I had a choice between travelling through a hub to reach said African destinations, SN would always be below the likes of Turkish and Qatar!

 

[David_itl]

Just looking at the BHX, MAN and LHR numbers to the Brussels airports, you can see the struggle for SN,

BHX BRU 2019 = average 11107 a month
BHX BRU 2023 = average 6012 a month

MAN BRU 2019 = average 20079 a month
MAN BRU 2023 = average 13405 a month
MAN CRL 2019 = average 15083 a month
MAN CRL 2023= average 20045 a month

LHR BRU 2019 = average 56303 a month
LHR BRU 2019 = average 48020 a month

it's not realistic to state the decline is due to Brexit when the MAN market is only down by 4%. It will be the potentially higher fares and competition that has dragged the route down . in the case of MAN, I would say Ethiopian is the main carrier to Africa even though it's a "pain" in that passengers are having to go GVA-ADD then the destination

Maybe the best way to address the Belgian market for the regions is to get Ryanair to fly to Charleroi,

 

[TM3]

When we are talking about EU traffic, MEPs and alike I can't see them travelling Ryanair, I think they would always choose SN if it was available, or possibly even travel our of their region for a full service flight.

It's not always just about PAX, SN may also have been receiving an EU subsidy to provide links to the UK.

If you look at SN alone MAN has also seen a significant dropoff for SN.

The numbers are down but what are LFs like? It may be that the overall number of seats has also been reduced, as I said the smaller frames seem to have gone from the fleet, which may also necessitate less frequent services.

Personally I would not want to see Ryanair do Charleroi as Brussels Airport is better located and SN still gives some useful connections to the wider LH group network and to Africa.

One of the things about the Africa market is it is sure to be very price driven and the gulf carriers, all connecting on widebodies, are going to be able to supply a lot of seats on these routes which can be targeted through booking engines if they are looking to pick off a weaker competitor, Whether some cheap fares are sustainable in the long term is difficult to say but if SN left the incentive to sell those seats cheaply might be gone.

* + Ryanair might add seats but that would typically be starting at 3 or 4 rotations per week and would likely further eat into SN's viability, such that they might leave the market all together which is not a good outcome as an SN service is better for the airport IMO than a Ryaniar one.

 

[mullion]

I know it doesn`t have any relavance to BHX but to Manchester a lot of the African business has gone to Ethiopian and Egyptair. Ryanair has created its own business in the tourist market which is quite substantial so don`t right it off and of course the further south you are the more Eurostar comes into play