September 14, 2022
From today, there will be direct flights again between Belgium and South Africa. That will be ensured by the airline Air Belgium, which will fly twice a week from Brussels Airport to Johannesburg and Cape Town. According to Air Belgium’s CEO, Niky Terzakis, these are the first direct flights between Belgium and South Africa in […]
September 13, 2022
Last summer, the airports of Antwerp and Ostend-Bruges welcomed almost 50% more passengers than last year. After two years of travel restrictions, the airports welcomed almost 160 000 passengers during the summer holidays. This means that these Flemish regional airports, managed by the French engineering group Egis, currently have 80% of the number of passengers […]
September 12, 2022
The motor show in Detroit, officially known as the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), will now take place in September and is following a new concept. The media day is next Wednesday, on the 14th of September, and after some professional days, the show opens to the public from 17 to 25 September. Being […]
September 07, 2022
Passengers of Lufthansa Group’s airlines no longer must queue up at the check-in desk in the departure hall of Brussels Airport to have their suitcases labeled and taken to the aircraft. Instead, thanks to a new baggage drop-off system, they can now carry out this procedure themselves, the airline and the airport have announced. The […]
September 01, 2022
German airline Lufthansa is missing out on the take-over of ITA, the successor to Alitalia. The Italian government withheld the bid of the American investment company Certares, together with airlines Air France-KLM and Delta Air Lines. Exclusive negotiations for the take-over are now being started with the latter parties. Lufthansa has submitted a bid together […]
August 24, 2022
Brussels Airlines wants to expand, with more planes and more staff. Vacancies have already been published and various growth scenarios are on the table. This was announced internally at the airline on Tuesday. “We are currently investigating various growth scenarios, which we will work out in more detail soon,” says spokesperson Maaike Andries. More clarity […]
August 18, 2022
American Airlines, claiming to be the world’s biggest airline, announced it has placed an order and paid a non-refundable deposit to US aerospace company Boom Supersonic for 20 supersonic Overture airplanes with an option for an additional 40. United Airlines has a deal for 15 aircraft and an option for 35 more, and Japan Airlines […]
August 12, 2022
In the coming years, Ryanair will no longer offer tickets at absolute bottom prices, such as 0,99 or 9,99 euros. This is what the top man Michael O’Leary of the Irish low-cost airline said in a radio interview with the BBC. Due to rising fuel and energy prices, accelerated by the war in Ukraine, Ryanair […]
August 05, 2022
Three years after flying over the Channel with a self-developed ‘Flyboard’, French former jet-ski world champion Franky Zapata has demonstrated his ‘flying car’, the JetRacer. The drone-like VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft with one seat is propelled by ten micro turbo-jet engines. It can reach an altitude of 3 000 meters and a top […]
August 05, 2022
Lufthansa, led by its cargo arm, has achieved its first quarterly net profit in over two years. Europe’s leading air transport group expects to post an operating profit of at least 500 million euros in 2022. “The Lufthansa group is back in the green,” boss Carsten Spohr said in a statement. “It’s now a matter […]
August 03, 2022
The German airline group Lufthansa and its Belgian subsidiary Brussels Airlines are testing a new environmentally-friendly ticket fare on the Scandinavian market. In addition to the classic Light, Classic, and Flex fares, a so-called ‘green fare’ has also been available since Tuesday in the booking process for European flights from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. With […]
July 26, 2022
According to the American aerospace manufacturer Boeing, global aviation will need 2,1 million new employees over the next 20 years due to the growth of its commercial aircraft fleet. That fleet is expected to nearly double to 47 080 commercial aircraft by 2041, Boeing says in its new Pilot and Technician Outlook (PTO), which it […]
July 20, 2022
Europe’s second biggest low-budget airline, British-based Easyjet, will work with British aerospace giant Rolls Royce (not the carmaker) in developing jet engines running on hydrogen. Both parties announced at the Farnborough aerospace fair that they will start ground tests this year, aiming to get the technology airborne by 2030. H2ZERO, as the cooperation is baptized, […]
July 18, 2022
Lufthansa more than doubled its turnover in the second quarter compared to last year. The German airline profited substantially from the increased demand for air travel as passengers rush to board planes again for business trips and their summer vacation, but the profit was also achieved because Lufthansa significantly increased the prices of its airline […]
July 18, 2022
The Antwerp-based private aircraft company Flyinggroup has ordered 50 e-VTOL VX4 airplanes from British Vertical Aerospace (Vertical), a pioneer in electric aviation. Delivery is expected by 2025. Flyinggroup, headquartered in Deurne (Antwerp), manages a fleet of more than 45 private planes in Europe and the Middle East, of which 15 are stationed in Antwerp. Now, […]
July 08, 2022
On Thursday, the European Parliament agreed to set a roadmap for the sector to fly on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) made from food waste, animal fat, or hydrogen, and CO2 instead of pure fossil kerosine. The MEPs went further than the EU Commission, setting the bar to 85% added SAF by 2050 instead of the […]
June 28, 2022
The extension of the P3 ‘Holiday’ car park at Brussels Airport has been completed, providing 2 000 extra spaces, Interparking and the airport announced on Monday. The extension brings the total number of parking spaces available at Brussels Airport to 13 000. The extension is spread over ten floors, with two underground levels, and will […]
June 27, 2022
The European Commission calls on all partners in the aviation sector to join forces in an alliance on zero-emission aviation. Over the next two decades, the Commission says, more than 44,000 new aircraft are expected to be on the market. It estimates the potential market volume for zero-emission aircraft at 26 000 by 2050, with […]
June 14, 2022
Seventeen Dutch companies and organizations have set up a partnership to develop a complete zero-emission drivetrain replacement for traditional propeller airplanes for the short-haul, based on electric motors fueled by fuel cells and hydrogen. They want to become a tier-one supplier of their HAPSS system to retrofit existing turboprop airplanes up to 40 to 80 […]
June 13, 2022
Hungarian low-budget airline Wizz Air will explore with European airplane builder Airbus all facets of flying ultra-low-cost on hydrogen. That includes the hydrogen aircraft, operations, infrastructure, the network, scheduling issues, ground bases, and airports. For this, it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Airbus that is to launch its hydrogen planes by 2035. Wizz […]
June 10, 2022
German airline Lufthansa and its low-cost subsidiary Eurowings announced they would cancel +1 000 flights in July. This is because there is not enough staff, both in-house and at airport service providers, to ensure the planned flight supply. Many airlines and airports in Europe, which often let employees go during the corona crisis, are struggling […]
June 09, 2022
Europe has taken a historic step on Wednesday with the Parliament voting a ban on sales of new cars or vans with an internal combustion engine (ICE), including plug-in hybrids, from 2035 on. Only manufacturers selling less than 10 000 – mostly exclusive sports cars like Ferrari – can apply for a derogation for a […]
May 31, 2022
Anyone flying with Brussels Airlines can now choose with one click to compensate for the CO2 emissions of the flight. The option is now integrated into the booking process, the airline announced. The CO2 compensation system already exists at Brussels Airlines, but until now, it was rather time-consuming: the traveler had to click through to […]
May 30, 2022
The startup Vaeridion from Munich wants to build small electric airplanes with space for two pilots and nine passengers. In contrast to the numerous electric vertical take-off concepts, Vaeridion’s electric aircraft is designed to take off and land like an ordinary airplane. The plans are in the very early stages. Still, the ambitions are high: […]
May 25, 2022
The Italian government has received two offers to acquire a majority stake in the Italian airline ITA Airways, the successor of Alitalia. One offer comes from Lufthansa, joining hands with the Swiss maritime group MSC. The other comes from an American investment group, Certares Management. This offer is backed by Air France/KLM and the American […]
May 24, 2022
In an objective to renew the airport of Zaventem into a multimodal hub based on a more environmental-friendly strategy, her CEO Arnaud Feist wants to exchange short-haul flights with high-speed train connections. While pointing at how Brussels Airport was one of the first in Europe with an integrated train station, he also puts the ball […]
May 11, 2022
A new trial involving nearly 400 families living in the area affected by noise pollution from flights of Brussels National Airport is targeting the Belgian government. The civil lawsuit, led by the civic organizations Wake up Crainhem and AWACSS, has been launched at the Brussels Court of First Instance, writes the newspaper La Libre Belgique. […]
May 10, 2022
European and US headquartered global companies are not putting much effort into reducing their business trips for climate’s sake. In the international ranking of the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E), companies with an A-score are the most ambitious; those dangling at the bottom get the lowest evaluation, a D-score. The ranking grades 230 US and […]
May 06, 2022
Brussels Airlines has again posted a red figure of -62 million euros in the first three months of 2022. Although this is an 11% improvement compared to the previous year, and the first quarter is traditionally the lowest-performing period of the year in the aviation sector, the airline is still experiencing the consequences of the […]
April 06, 2022
Up until corona times, aviation was the fastest-growing carbon polluter in the European Union. Still, it is one of the top receivers of free pollution permits relative to their emissions under the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS in short). The EU ETS is a cornerstone of the EU’s policy to combat climate change […]
March 28, 2022
The mandatory flight tax will cost Belgian airline companies – Brussels Airlines, Air Belgium, and TUI Fly – five million euros, money they will have to pay out of their own pockets as they can’t impose it on customers for already booked flights. The decision to impose airlines a so-called ‘flight tax’ was taken last […]
March 16, 2022
The noisiest and heaviest aircraft must be banned from Brussels Airport. That is what the Federal Ombudsman for the national airport, Philippe Touwaide, has stated at a press conference on Tuesday. “There are infringements every night, and we don’t pursue them,” Touwaide said, citing the case of noisy aircraft such as Boeing 777s at night […]
March 08, 2022
Today, Transport & Environment (T&E), the European Federation for Transport and Environment, publishes its ‘Roadmap to climate-neutral aviation’. According to the organization, progress in technology and the lessons learned during the pandemic have shown a way to green aviation in Europe. To bring Europeʼs aviation industry in line with our climate goals, binding measures have […]
March 07, 2022
After Airbus in Europe took the lead on developing airplanes burning hydrogen instead of kerosene, American aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney is also looking into hydrogen-fueled propulsion technology for commercial aviation. End of February, it got a $3,8 million grant from the US Department of Energy (DoE) to develop these engines. The HySIITE project will […]
March 04, 2022
Brussels Airlines ended the year as expected with an operating loss of 189 million euros. That is less than in the first corona year 2020. This year it aims to break even, and the CEO of Brussels Airlines, Peter Gerber, is confident that during the pandemic a new Brussels Airlines has been built, ready for […]
March 03, 2022
Airline Ryanair is going to expand its summer offer at Charleroi significantly. Twenty destinations will be added at Charleroi, announced Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary. These include Naples, Madeira, Sibiu, and Stockholm. Ryanair is thus flying to 121 destinations from Belgium, an absolute record, claims the low-cost carrier. The company is very optimistic and hopes […]
February 14, 2022
On 15 February, Brussels Airlines celebrates its twentieth anniversary. In 2002, SN Brussels Airlines was launched on the same day, the successor of Sabena, which went bankrupt in November 2001. Since early 2017, Brussels Airlines has been wholly owned by the German group Lufthansa. After a few difficult years with loss-making and two years of […]
February 02, 2022
Despite being a small manufacturer of hypercars in a small town in Sweden, Koenigsegg has never been shy of developing pioneering technology. With the electric dawn settling, the company confirms its reputation by introducing a revolutionary electric motor, which packs massive power without a weight penalty. Or, you could argue Koenigsegg is showcasing two such […]
January 28, 2022
Airplanes with 200 passengers flying up to 2 000 nautical miles or 3 700 km on hydrogen without any emissions at all? Yes, by 2035, European aircraft manufacturer Airbus says, it will be possible by burning hydrogen like spacecraft. But the challenge is: how to store enough of it onboard? Hydrogen provides three times more […]
January 25, 2022
Lufthansa and Swiss-Italian shipping group MSC have offered to buy a majority stake in ITA Airways, the slimmed-down successor to Alitalia controlled by the Italian state. This was reported by various Italian media on Monday. The two groups have asked for an exclusivity period of 90 days to study the deal. The proposal of the […]
January 21, 2022
Energy provider Engie and French aeronautics group Safran have both invested in Ineratec, a German start-up specialized in decarbonized synthetic fuels. The young company just closed a financing round of over $20 million, which will develop a sustainable synthetic fuel production plant near Frankfurt Airport that could yield up to 4,6 million littles from CO2 […]
January 20, 2022
With hopes of the pandemic coming to an end, a mastodon of the world aeronautics industry, Airbus, is preparing for the post-Covid-19 boom in air transport and new greener airplane requirements with a new recruitment plan. In 2022, the company will hire 6 000 people, one-quarter of them for decarbonization, digital transformation, and cybertechnology. “Airbus […]
January 11, 2022
The Air France-KLM Group is raising airplane ticket prices in 2022 by one to twelve euros depending on the cabin class and distance traveled to pay for the use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), added to regular kerosine. In France, adding 1% of SAF has been mandatory since last year. KLM will start adding 0,5% […]
January 11, 2022
Airline company Brussels Airlines will not be able to cope with the current fleet during the coming summer season. According to CEO Peter Gerber, more than the current 39 airplanes will be needed. He said this in an interview with the German trade magazine Aerotelegraph reports news agency Belga. In 2020, Brussels Airlines reduced its […]
January 07, 2022
Airlines have no reason to fly planes empty in Europe to keep their airport slots. That is what ACI Europe, the association representing Europe’s airports, says, expressing dismay at the controversy that arose after Lufthansa said carrying out some 18 000 unnecessary flights just to keep its time slots. About 3 000 of these are […]
January 05, 2022
German air transport group Lufthansa is set to cancel 33 000 flights by late March due to the effect of the resurging pandemic. However, to keep its allocated take-off and landing slots at European airports, the airline will have to ensure 18 000 flights, full or empty. Belgian Federal Mobility Minister, Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo), asks […]
December 24, 2021
The German airline company Lufthansa has canceled several long-distance flights due to a shortage of pilots. Many pilots are ill and the company is forced to reschedule and even reduce the flights planned for January and February. Subsidiary company Brussels Airlines has had similar problems and also had to cancel one flight so far. “The […]
December 17, 2021
The Australian airline company Qantas is planning to replace its actual fleet of Boeings for inland flights with Airbus planes. The European aircraft builder Airbus has signed a contract with Qantas. The prices of the deal were not mentioned. Meanwhile, also Air France-KLM has placed an order for 100 machines at Airbus; some 60 more […]
December 16, 2021
Pilots and cabin crew of airline company Brussels Airlines will knock off work on Monday for a 24-hour strike. This was learned from the trade unions on Wednesday. They are protesting the excessive workload. The management of Brussels Airlines says being “very surprised” by the call for a strike that may also involve the ground […]
November 29, 2021
To conclude the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of Renault 4, the carmaker has decided to team up with motion design hub TheArsenale to create a futuristic show car, AIR4, a reinterpretation of this iconic model. 2021 marks the 60th anniversary of the Renault 4L, a car that has sold more than 8 million units […]
November 26, 2021
On Thursday, November 25th, Brussels Airport has officially launched Stargate. In the next five years, Stargate, a consortium of 22 partners, will work out several projects aiming at greener aviation and making European airports more sustainable. The Stargate project will receive €24,8 million subsidies within the European Green Deal. The partners of the consortium will […]
November 19, 2021
Brussels Airlines presented a new brand identity, including a new logo, on Thursday. The latter immediately caused some ‘turbulence’, as the new identity and logo were certainly not to the liking of several hundred employees that wanted the money spent elsewhere to reduce pressure on the staff. And Polish news medium, Gazeta.pl, saw a striking […]
November 04, 2021
Brussels Airlines has had an excellent third quarter, thanks to the strong demand for vacation flights. As a result, the adjusted operating profit (EBIT) from July to September was 1 million euros, compared to a loss of 51 million euros in the same period last year. For the first nine months of the year, the […]
November 04, 2021
Dutch oil giant Shell, Swedish energy provider Vattenfall, and Scandinavia’s leading airline SAS announced to jointly study the possibilities to produce 50 000 tons of electrofuel for aviation, made from green hydrogen and CO2, captured from a district heating facility. With full production up and running, SAS could provide up to 25 percent of its […]
October 28, 2021
British-American start-up in hydrogen-powered aviation, ZeroAvia, has signed an agreement with Dutch aviation partners to realize a zero-emission one-hour flight route with a 19-seat airplane on hydrogen between London and The Hague Airport (RTHA) in Rotterdam. ZeroAvia and Royal Schiphol Group say they’re in advanced talks with airlines to exploit the new route. Targeted for […]
October 15, 2021
Alitalia, the flagship of Italian air transport, will end its 74-year history. On Thursday, it made its last flight, crippled by long-standing financial problems. Today, the new airline Italia Trasporto Aereo (ITA) will take off with the help of the Italian government. But there is deliberately no talk of a relaunch. Instead, the new player […]
October 14, 2021
This Tuesday, the Belgian government suggested introducing a tax on short-haul flights less than 500 km from Brussels Airport. In its estimate, it should bring in 30 million euros by 2022, and 40 million in the next two years. The opposition was quick to berate the suggested bill, pointing out obvious flaws. They include the […]
October 13, 2021
French President Macron presented on Tuesday his ‘France 2030’ program, which plans to invest €30 billion in different industrial and energy sectors to put France back on the map. Automotive and aerospace will share a budget of four billion euros to reach specific objectives, including 2 million EVs and hybrids produced by 2030 and the […]
October 12, 2021
German airline Lufthansa has repaid part of the state aid it received during the corona crisis following a capital increase as planned. Lufthansa confirmed this on Monday. By issuing new shares, the airline could carry out a capital increase of 2,15 billion euros gross. This enables Lufthansa to repay 1,5 billion euros to the German […]
October 05, 2021
The International Air Transport Association (IATA), grouping 290 airlines worldwide, has agreed on its yearly congress in Boston (US) to make aviation CO2-free by 2050. Experts fear it will be a gigantic task, as IATA targeted the last twelve years only to halve its CO2 emissions by that date, compared to 2005. The objectives are […]
