March 28, 2024
TAP Air Portugal posted a record profit of 177.3 million euros in 2023, up by just under 112 million euros compared to 2022. TAP carried 15.9 million passengers in 2023, up 15.2%, but still lower than before the 2019 health crisis. Meanwhile, Italy’s ITA Airways reduced its loss to 5 million euros last year, down […]
March 28, 2024
The Dutch ‘flying car’ will take a high flight in Dubai, where local business aviation company Aviterra has ordered a fleet of a hundred PAL-V Liberty aircraft. Loggia Investment, the investment arm of Aviterra, has made a strategic investment in PAL-V as one of the 220 contributors to the startup and established partnerships for the […]
March 26, 2024
From March 31st, the start of the summer season, Brussels Airport will offer nine new destinations. Six new airlines will also make their appearance. More importantly, by Friday, a decision on the new environmental permit for the airport is expected. Brussels Airport and residents will then know whether the annual number of flight movements will […]
March 21, 2024
The court in Amsterdam has condemned KLM for various misleading green claims in advertisements. According to the judges, the Dutch airline painted too rosy a picture of the beneficial effects of, for example, forest projects as CO2 compensation and the use of more sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The ruling states that such measures only marginally […]
March 21, 2024
Since its peak in 2007, the transport sector has decarbonized three times slower than the rest of the economy, and emissions continue to grow. European transport emissions have increased by over a quarter since 1990, while emissions across the wider economy are declining. A new study by Transport & Environment (T&E) shows that transport alone […]
March 21, 2024
A previously announced four-day strike by Brussels Airlines pilots was first postponed, but the unions reinitiated it for 27 to 30 March at the last minute on Wednesday evening as negotiating with the employer for higher wages was ‘close’ but ‘not sufficient’. The management proposal to compensate higher wages by less weekend rest days, was […]
March 19, 2024
Brussels Airport accounts for 5.41 billion in added value and more than 64,000 jobs. According to a study on the economic impact commissioned by Zaventem Airport, the Universities UAntwerpen and UCLouvain presented these results on Monday. Meanwhile, management and unions at Brussels Airlines also reached an agreement on Monday regarding better pay for cabin crew. […]
March 11, 2024
Together with the official opening of its new test center in Donauwörth, Germany, Airbus Helicopters presented last week the prototype of its fully electric CityAirbus NextGen eVTOL, a four-seater with eight propellors that takes off and lands vertically. Once airborne, the two-ton so-called ‘multicopter’ tilts its rotors to fly like an airplane for some 80 […]
March 08, 2024
After five years of loss-making, Brussels Airlines posted record results last year, with an operating profit of 53 million euros. The airline carried 8,3 million passengers for the entire year, 21% more than in 2022. But even though turnover climbed back to pre-corona levels, Brussels Airlines has been plagued by social unrest for some time, […]
March 04, 2024
French-Dutch airline group Air France-KLM has seen sales and profits rise to record highs in 2023 despite losing in the fourth quarter. The group ended the year with a net profit of 934 million euros, its highest-ever profit figure. Sales rose to 3 billion euros, 14% more than in 2022. These record figures starkly contrast […]
February 22, 2024
European aerospace corporation Airbus and French oil company TotalEnergies are joining forces to address sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) challenges. The partnership should contribute to reducing CO2 emissions from the aviation sector to reach net zero emissions by 2050. Eventually, SAF supplied by TotalEnergies can reduce up to 90% of CO2 emissions over their lifecycle compared […]
February 20, 2024
In December last year, China presented the C919, its first domestically produced airplane. On Tuesday, China’s largest passenger aircraft will be shown internationally for the first time at Singapore Airshow. With the C919, Beijing aims to compete with Airbus and Boeing, the world’s two leading aircraft manufacturers, while becoming less dependent on foreign technologies. A […]
January 24, 2024
The European Commission has blocked plans by German airline group Lufthansa to take a minority stake in Italian airline ITA Airways. EU anti-trust regulators are “concerned after a preliminary investigation that the transaction could restrict competition on several short- and long-haul routes to and from Italy,” they said in a press release. This mainly concerns […]
January 23, 2024
Brussels Airlines and its Belgian rival TUI fly are looking to recruit more than 700 people this year. Both airlines are mainly looking for stewards and flight attendants, but TUI fly is also looking for 15 future pilots, for example, while about 40 are needed at Brussels Airlines. Brussels Airlines, which had to lay off […]
January 19, 2024
Brussels Airlines has presented new uniforms for its cabin crew, pilots, and airport staff. The style guide has also been completely updated: from now on, hairstyles and make-up are no longer gender-specific, which means that stewards can now paint their nails, for example. Visible tattoos are no longer taboo either. The new uniforms, which more […]
January 16, 2024
Lufthansa Group plans to hire around 13 000 new employees this year. These include pilots, cabin crew, technicians, and IT specialists, according to the German airline group, which also has airlines Eurowings, Brussels Airlines, Swiss, and Austrian Airlines. According to Aviation24, at least 380 of them will be recruited for Brussels Airlines. Lufthansa is looking […]
January 10, 2024
South Korean carmaker Hyundai unveiled in Vegas, at the start of the Consumer Electronics Show 2024, the second S-A2 concept of its four-passenger ‘flying taxi,’ an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle. The real ‘take-off’ in the market will not be before 2028, as this one is on static display at the parking lot […]
January 02, 2024
European aircraft maker Airbus has a much better financial year than its US rival Boeing. In December alone, 500 orders were placed, accounting for a record 1 880 new aircraft orders for 2023. This makes Airbus the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer for the sixth time in a row, a position it owes mainly to its […]
December 29, 2023
All airlines departing from Brussels Airport in 2024 can benefit from a one-off premium to use Sustainable Aviation Fuels or SAFs. The SAF premium will be up to 200 000 euros per airline. According to Brussels Airport, that will cover up to 80% of the additional cost. Due to the high price of SAF, that […]
December 21, 2023
The General Court of the European Union has annulled the billions in aid approved by the European Commission to French airline Air France-KLM during the coronavirus health crisis. According to the court, the EC “erred” at the time. France, the major shareholder of Air France, helped the airline in 2020 with a 4-billion-euro state guarantee […]
December 20, 2023
Lufthansa has ordered 80 new short- and medium-haul aircraft with Boeing and Airbus. These include 40 Airbus A220-300 aircraft and 40 Boeing 737-8 Max. The German airline group is also taking an option on 120 additional aircraft. The group itself calls it the most extensive fleet modernization in its history. The aircraft will be delivered […]
December 20, 2023
If Ryanair’s share price continues to rise, top executive Michael O’Leary could land a bonus of as much as 100 million euros. That reports the British business newspaper Financial Times, based on a 2019 bonus plan for the Irishman. If Ryanair’s shares maintain a price of 21 euros for 28 consecutive days, then the super […]
December 18, 2023
Denmark will impose a tax on air travel starting in 2025. By 2030, the flight tax should be at cruising speed and will amount to an average of 100 Danish kroner or 13,5 euros, the Danish government has announced. At the same time, it is calling for the adoption of a European tax on the […]
December 13, 2023
By 2032, Brussels Airport’s noise impact would drop by 12% despite growth in passengers and cargo volumes. That’s according to the environmental impact report (MER) accompanying the new Brussels Airport environmental permit application. More modern aircraft making less noise and quieter landing techniques would decrease the nuisance. By the end of March, the Flemish government […]
December 08, 2023
Airlines expect to carry 4,7 billion passengers next year, a historic record dixit the International Air Transport Association (IATA). According to the umbrella organization, the airline industry will also post a net profit of 25,7 billion dollars in 2024, a slight improvement on the 23,3 billion dollars the industry is most likely to post this […]
December 06, 2023
Pilots of Belgian air carrier Brussels Airlines won’t strike this month, as planned initially. On Tuesday, unions and the management agreed on three of the main demands of the pilots to release work pressure: 12 instead of 5 ‘joker days’, more compensation for weekend work, and extra rest time when staying on location abroad. After […]
November 29, 2023
On Tuesday morning, November 28th, the first trans-Atlantic flight by an airliner powered by 100% green fuel took off. Virgin Atlantic operated the flight from London Heathrow to New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Virgin founder Richard Branson, British Transport Secretary Mark Harper, and Virgin Atlantic chief executive Shai Weiss […]
November 24, 2023
Brussels Airlines and shuttle transport specialist Flibco are launching a collaboration to offer connections between Lille and eleven destinations in Sub-Saharan Africa. The bus service operated by Flibco between Lille and Brussels Airport in Zaventem will automatically be included in the air ticket. This is a pilot project that both companies hope to expand later. […]
November 20, 2023
Anyone who has booked a flight with Brussels Airlines during the Christmas holidays should cross their fingers: cabin crew have issued an indefinite strike notice. When the strike will occur is not yet clear, but staff threatens to inconvenience during the Christmas holidays. The direct cause, according to the union, is the company’s failure to […]
November 13, 2023
Nearly 600 people participated in a protest march in Zaventem on Sunday against the expansion of Brussels Airport. The participants also demanded the abolition of night flights and a limitation on the number of flights annually. According to the campaigners, the government should impose binding targets on noise pollution and emissions. In the meantime, Flanders […]
November 03, 2023
The third quarter was the most profitable ever for Brussels Airlines. Adjusted operating profit (EBIT) rose by 21 million euros compared to the same period last year, to 72 million euros. The airline also expects record profits for the whole year. Lufthansa, the German parent company of Brussels Airlines, also recorded a record summer, with […]
November 02, 2023
For the first time, Brussels Airlines has added a brand-new aircraft from its aircraft manufacturer to its fleet. The plane in question is an Airbus A320neo. Four more such aircraft, which are quieter and less polluting than older aircraft, will follow in the coming months. The aircraft, produced at the Airbus factory in Toulouse, has […]
October 30, 2023
Airline Air France-KLM posted its best quarter ever this summer. From the period from July to September, the French-Dutch airline group retains an operating profit of 1,3 billion euros, which is an improvement on the record set six years ago. Profits rose by almost a third in the third quarter compared to last year and […]
October 26, 2023
The ministerial cabinets of the federal government and the various federated entities have already traveled around the world 66 times since coming to power. This carried a price tag of over 33 million euros, and the trips generated 1 500 tons of CO2 emissions. So write the IPM Group newspapers, including La Libre Belgique. By […]
October 19, 2023
Air France will virtually disappear from Orly Airport by 2026. The French airline plans to concentrate its flights at Charles de Gaulle Airport. The decision comes as domestic flights from Orly are becoming less popular, as people more often video-conferee or travel by train. Sister carrier Transavia will now become Group Air France’s reference carrier […]
October 12, 2023
European airports think that starting next year, they will regain the volume of passenger traffic they had before the coronavirus crisis. That is a year ahead of schedule. ACI Europe even foresees a slight increase compared to before the Covid-19 disruption, according to their updated Airport Traffic Forecast 2023-2027. The International Association of European Airports […]
October 09, 2023
The Federal Minister of Mobility, Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo), has a preliminary draft ready for a framework law to provide a legal basis for all decisions regarding the operation of Brussels Airport. According to the minister, the text is essential to avoid new legal proceedings over noise pollution, in which the State sometimes has to pay […]
October 05, 2023
It’s a growing problem on fully booked short flights in Europe: passengers carrying (too much) hand luggage to be stowed in the airplane’s overhead bins as rules differ among airlines, and some of them charge extras. The European Parliament wants to end these confusing rules and urges to review the EU laws on aviation passenger […]
October 04, 2023
Air France-KLM is buying into Scandinavian airline SAS. The Franco-Dutch airline group is acquiring 19,9% of Danish-Swedish SAS, which has been struggling for several years, for 144,5 million dollars. The deal also includes SAS’s exit from Star Alliance, the airline alliance that includes Germany’s Lufthansa (and its Belgian subsidiary Brussels Airlines) and US-based United Airlines. […]
September 29, 2023
Irish low-cost airline Ryanair is forced to cancel a series of flights during the upcoming winter season due to delivery delays of new aircraft by US aircraft manufacturer Boeing. At Brussels Charleroi Airport, Ryanair will station three planes less than planned, canceling up to 12 flights daily as no spare planes are available. A few […]
September 27, 2023
British airplane engine expert Rolls-Royce says it has proven a critical engine technology that marks a significant step in enabling hydrogen as an aviation fuel. “Tests on a full annular combustor of a Pearl 700 engine at DLR in Cologne running on 100% hydrogen have proven the fuel can be combusted at conditions that represent […]
September 26, 2023
Austrian Airlines, a subsidiary of Germany’s Lufthansa, can no longer advertise that flying can be “CO2 neutral”. An Austrian court has ruled that. In turn, Carsten Spohr, Lufthansa’s CEO, has hinted that his airline would have to consume half of Germany’s electricity production for its entire fleet to fly on e-fuels. According to the French […]
September 26, 2023
Air France-KLM is to order 50 Airbus A350 aircraft from European aircraft manufacturer Airbus. The first deliveries are scheduled for 2026 through 2030. With the order, Air France-KLM aims to expand and renew its long-haul fleet. The airline had previously ordered 41 Airbus A350s. Of these, 22 have already been delivered. The order also includes […]
September 19, 2023
Air Belgium, founded in 2016 and employing some 500 people, will stop passenger flights after 3 October and is applying for a judicial reorganization. Since April, Air Belgium, one of the principal shareholders of the Walloon region, has concentrated its passenger operations on two main destinations: South Africa (Johannesburg/Cape Town) and Mauritius. The affected employees […]
September 13, 2023
After a nine-year absence, Brussels Airlines will again fly to the Kenyan capital Nairobi in June. To do so, it will deploy a new aircraft, an Airbus A330, now the airline’s tenth long-haul aircraft. It will also increase the number of flights to the Rwandan capital, Kigali, from five to seven a week. The ramping […]
August 15, 2023
Californian electric air taxi developer Archer Aviation has secured airworthiness certification from the FAA to start the homologation testing for its Midnight eVTOL air taxi. It got another $210 million fresh capital boost from big fellows like United Airlines, Boeing, and carmaker Stellantis, with the latter actually helping to build it, in a brand-new factory […]
August 09, 2023
A new Spanish operator, Surcar Airlines Hidroaviones, is planning to retrofit Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter seaplanes with ZeroAvia’s 600kW ZA600 fuel cell engines to enable zero-emission sightseeing flights in the Canary Islands. It signed an agreement for this with British-American start-up ZeroAvia. ZeroAvia just announced the completion of its initial prototype ZA600 flight testing […]
August 09, 2023
Of all flight movements recorded at Deurne Airport, near Antwerp, in 2022, 72% were domestic flights. This is according to figures requested by Groen in the Flemish parliament. The airport itself points to the many pilot training sessions in Deurne as an explanation. Groen denounces the total of 30 000 domestic flight movements in Deurne. […]
August 04, 2023
Europe’s leading airline group Lufthansa more than tripled its net profit in the second quarter and expects to post one of the best annual results in its history. Subsidiary Brussels Airlines carried 3,95 million passengers in the first half, making its Q2 a good one, with a profit of 31 million euros. Three years after […]
July 31, 2023
Capitalizing on their customers’ regained travel appetite, Air France-KLM, one of Europe’s largest airline groups, posted an operating profit of 663 million euros in the second quarter. In April-June, total revenue went up nearly 1,8 billion euros to 7,7 billion euros. In 2022, the Franco-Dutch group still signed up for more than 11 billion euros […]
July 26, 2023
One of British best-known climate activists and industrialists and founder of Ecotricity, the ‘world’s first green energy company’, unveiled plans to launch by 2024 the ‘first electric airline powered by renewable energy’. Ecojet, as the new airline is called, will operate planes converted to hydrogen fuel cells by 2025 from Edinburgh to start, expanding through […]
July 26, 2023
On Tuesday, a large unmanned passenger drone took off in Sint-Truiden (Limburg) to transport some blood samples – a European first. The aircraft flew for a kilometer through DronePort’s test airspace. The experiment was accompanied by the Belgian Antwerp-based company Helicus, which develops drone applications and technologies for medical transport. The drone’s test flight was […]
July 25, 2023
Irish low-budget airline Ryanair posted profits of 683 million euros in the second quarter, almost quadrupling compared to last year. The profit growth came thanks to passenger growth and more expensive tickets, as costs have also risen for Ryanair. Meanwhile, Belgian Ryanair pilots in Charleroi have announced another strike due to a social dispute over […]
July 24, 2023
Belgian Mobility Minister Georges Gilkinet’s (Ecolo) proposal to ban all air traffic at Brussels Airport at night continues to evoke resistance. Now the industry federation IATA (International Air Transport Association), which represents some 290 airlines comprising 82% of global air traffic, is also coming out with a predictably dismissive response. It argues that Gilkinet’s proposal […]
July 21, 2023
Traveling by train in Europe is, on average, twice as expensive as flying. On some routes, trains are even 30 times more costly than planes. This is according to an analysis by Greenpeace Central and Eastern Europe. The organization argues that European railways are disadvantaged by unfair taxes in favor of airlines, to the detriment […]
July 18, 2023
Belgian airline company Brussels Airlines has filed an official complaint with the European Commission against the “illegal state aid” it claims Charleroi Airport receives. The complaint relates to the terminal navigation charge, which the Belgian air traffic controller Skeyes receives per plane taking off at Brussels Airport. Airlines have to pay part of that amount […]
July 17, 2023
Federal Mobility Minister Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo) wants a total ban on night flights from 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. for Zaventem airport. As expected, many political parties, concerned companies, and interest groups reacted sharply and negatively to Gilkinet’s striking proposal to do away with the 16 000-night flights that currently take off from Brussels Airport. […]
July 13, 2023
The Dutch ‘flying car’ PAL-V Liberty, currently undergoing an extensive test program to prepare for serial production and homologation for Europe next year, has seduced Austrian aviation specialist Primus Aero to buy the first five of a whole fleet of them for its mobile service teams. At what price wasn’t unveiled. The PAL-V Liberty can […]
July 13, 2023
The aviation sector benefits from unjustified tax exemptions that, if left unaddressed, will rise in value by 38% in the next three years. If Belgium were to tax aviation ‘fairly’, this would yield 700 million euros for the state treasury. This was calculated by the European environmental umbrella organization Transport & Environment (T&E). Today, aviation […]
July 12, 2023
The discussions within the consultation platform on Zaventem airport did not lead to a consensus. This is according to the final report of the platform, which included representation from residents, municipalities, Brussels Airport, trade unions, and governments. Meanwhile, the bill the Belgian government must pay victims of noise pollution for overflying aircraft is running into […]
