The stabilization package of 460 million euro – €290 million from the Belgian Federal government and €170 million from Lufthansa – covers in part the losses incurred by Brussels Airlines due to the crisis and secures at the same time tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs that are linked to the activities of Brussels Airlines. The airline has stated on its press release that: Thanks to the package, the airline can finance its turnaround plan and herewith create a long-term and structurally profitable future.

We are happy that an agreement was reached on the stabilization package for Brussels Airlines and that we can now fully dedicate ourselves again to our customers, employees and partners. pic.twitter.com/OFTY4uFhNm

— Brussels Airlines (@FlyingBrussels) July 24, 2020

Dieter Vranckx, CEO of Brussels Airlines has stated: “With this news, we finally conclude the three pillars of our survival and long-term competitiveness. We are relieved that the execution of the financial transaction can take place. We will now shift all our focus towards a timely implementation of our turnaround plan Reboot Plus. »

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In recent years, the company has been barely profitable. And 2019 does not look much better, mostly after the bankruptcy of British tour operator Thomas Cook. The Belgian airline carried the bulk of its travelers, and its loss will indeed cost to the company more than 12 million euros.

According to the Reboot plan, Brussels Airlines will have to evolve in the coming years towards a smaller but more profitable company. The goal is to achieve a profit margin of at least 8% by 2022, before again being able to think about growing the business. A margin that is required for the company can assume alone the necessary investments (in the fleet, in the IT department, etc).

Unions claim there is no clarity on job cuts

It is still unclear what impact these economies will have on nearly 4,200 workers. Management is not able to accurately quantify the number of people affected. This will be examined in the coming months or even years, department by department. In any case, it has been made a commitment to compensate as much as possible for job losses through voluntary redundancies, even if dry layoffs are not completely excluded.

The voluntary departure plan is being negotiated with the workers’ representatives. The Christian union, in particular, is reluctant to sign a « blank page », without further details on the exact impact and fears that the management wants to circumvent the Renault law (in terms of collective redundancies) by distributing dismissals over time . Socialists also ask for clarity on the number of employees concerned. Finally, the liberal training – the main one at Brussels Airlines – is more inclined to continue to negotiate voluntary departures, in order to avoid a collective dismissal.

The unions came out disappointed Thursday morning extraordinary works council at Brussels Airlines. They regret that they still have no clarity on the planned job cuts under the ‘Reboot’ future plan, which aims to increase the profit margin to 8% by 2022, compared to almost 0% currently. « We will not have a clear view for three years, and this will have a clear impact on the atmosphere among the workers, » they summarize.

Despite their insistent demand, the unions have still not been informed of the concrete impact on employment within the company, they lament. « For three years, we will negotiate department by department of voluntary departures to reach this 8% profit margin. So we will not have clarity during all this time, » analyzes Luc Martin, CNE, which is already very uncertain.

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The majority of the repatriations will be operated by Brussels Airlines, implementing flights that would have taken place anyway. Thomas Cook and Neckermann’s customers that are in Turkey, instead, will be flying with the local company Tailwind. Finally, those who have stayed in Enfidha will board a flight operated by the Tunisian company Nouvelair.

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After its declaration of bankruptcy on Monday, the Thomas Cook Group has announced that its activities in Belgium will remain operational for the moment, but the precise consequences of this filing for bankruptcy are not yet known. At the moment, nearly 10,000 Belgians are on holiday via a trip booked by Thomas Cook Belgium.

Brussels Airlines apologizes for the inconvenience and sends affected customers to Thomas Cook, stating that the tour operator hasn’t been able to pay his debts of the last two weeks. The flight company also assures that only flights operated exclusively on behalf of the British tour operator are concerned.

The flight company is currently working on their flight plan for the coming weeks and months and will inform customers as soon as possible.

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Anita Van Hoof of the socialist trade union BBTK (Setca) stated that it is positive news as « staff have always been in favour of that since Lufthansa took over Brussels Airlines ».

The airline used to be a part of Eurowings within the Lufthansa Group.

However, Brussels Airlines will maintain close contact with partners of the group such as Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and Swiss.

Eurowings stated on their press-release that they will focus on short-distance, mainly intra-European flights.

Further information will be released by the group by the end of the week since the unions have not yet received any details on the management’s recovery plan for the carrier.

It has yet to be seen whether the airline will remain independent. According to Filip Lemberechts (ACLVB / CGSLB), « the staff will be more motivated to find solutions if Brussels Airlines remains independent ».

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This year, the honour is going to the Flemish renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder (° ± 1525 – † 1569), to mark the 450th anniversary of his passing. Other exponents of our national pride who came before him were, in order, comic book hero Tintin, surrealist artist René Magritte, football legends the Red Devils, world-famous outdoor dance event Tomorrowland and the Smurfs (also comic book characters).

The Brussels artists Jos de Gruyter and Harald Thys created the design for an Airbus A320 that will serve as part of Brussels Airlines’ European network until 2024. The 37-metre-long aircraft was painted by hand over a period of 19 days with scenes and details from ten of Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s works, including Children’s Games and The Harvesters.

The choice of Bruegel is in keeping with the theme of Flemish Masters, through which Tourism Flanders aims to draw art lovers to the region.

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The Belgian airline is integrated into Eurowings Group, a low-cost subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. The Eurowings Group as a whole registered a heavy net loss over the last fiscal year, though Brussels Airlines itself recorded a profit.

However, such profits were deemed to be “not enough” by Mr Svensson, who did not elaborate on any exact figures.

Eurowings’ losses last year were heavily affected by its recent integration with Air Berlin, which added 170 million euros worth of expenses to the first three fiscal quarters.

“We are working hard to make Brussels Airlines more profitable with Eurowings,” Mr Svensson continued. “We have taken many measures, some of which are identical to those we’ve decided for Eurowings. »

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Flybmi announced on Saturday February 16th that it was ceasing operations and was placed in liquidation. This also has consequences for Brussels Airlines passengers because Flybmi was conducting several flights on behalf of the Belgian company (to Hanover, Strasbourg and Turin) while Brussels Airlines were selling seats on other Flybmi flights (to Bristol, East Midlands, Newcastle, Nuremberg).

On all these flights, Brussels Airlines had already sold 16,000 seats for 2019, said a spokeswoman. The company is looking for solutions for these passengers. It will equip one of its aircrafts to connect Hannover and Strasbourg. It also has alternatives for Turin, a city with which it already provides connections.

For its part, the Scottish regional company Loganair announced Monday that it would take over from March 25 the Brussels-Newcastle Flybmi links.

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The airline stated that more information is to follow soon.

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The flight to the Rwandan capital Kigali left Friday two hours behind schedule. The plane made a U-turn to land at Brussels Airport around 14:00.

« One of the computers was displaying an error signal, » said Brussels Airlines spokeswoman Maaike Andries. « There are several computer systems and the error signal only appeared on one computer, » she said.

According to Brussels Airlines, this incident has nothing to do with the engine problems that occurred on December 11th during a flight between Kinshasa and Brussels. The left engine of the aircraft had then stopped unexpectedly during the flight, before being turned back on. By then, the right engine had in turn had some problems as Brussels approached. The plane finally landed safely in Belgium.

Tests later revealed that the problem of the left engine was related to a computer concern but also that « contamination of kerosene » was at the root of the malfunctions of the right engine. The aircraft remained on the ground for more than two weeks before conducting first a test flight at the end of December, which was uneventful.

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