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 […]
July 05, 2023
Imagine Brussels a decade further in the future with electric flying VTOL taxis taking off and landing vertically on ‘vertidromes’ at several places in the inner city, picking up passengers to fly them in no time to the national airport high above a congested city. An airborne ride that would cost you four to eight […]
June 22, 2023
More than 20 European consumer organizations have filed a complaint to stop what they call misleading greenwashing claims by a series of airlines. The complaint is filed with the European Commission and the Consumer Protection Cooperation Network (CPC). It is directed against 17 airlines, including those in the Lufthansa Group (among which Brussels Airlines), Air […]
June 20, 2023
Indian low-cost airline IndiGo has ordered 500 Airbus A320 aircraft. By volume, this is the largest contract ever concluded in civil aviation. The contract represents a theoretical list price of 55 billion dollars. The aircraft are to be delivered between 2030 and 2035. And Walloon aviation company Sonaca also sings the “largest contract in its […]
June 09, 2023
Two electric ‘hydrant fuel dispensers’, which pump fuel from the underground piping system into the aircraft, will come into operation at Brussels Airport from next year. The new custom-made devices are part of the greening of the airport sector, says the operator. Ordered by Skytanking The vehicles were ordered by the company Skytanking, which provides […]
June 06, 2023
Last Friday, Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) began accepting seat reservations for its groundbreaking commercial electric flights in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark… in 2028. After that, there are no seats available anymore. “This extraordinary event presents an opportunity for travelers to become part of aviation history. Each of the three inaugural flights, scheduled to take place in […]
May 30, 2023
The Comac C919, China’s first domestically manufactured aircraft, made its maiden commercial flight on Sunday. It should mark a turning point for the Chinese aviation industry, which has long wanted to compete with famous Western aircraft such as the Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A320. The C from Comac forms an ABC for a reason […]
May 26, 2023
The die is cast. After months of negotiations, German airline group Lufthansa will take a minority stake in Italian airline ITA Airways. The Germans are injecting 325 million euros into ITA in exchange for a 41% stake. Eventually, they may acquire the airline outright. Additional government funding In addition to the capital increase by Lufthansa, […]
May 25, 2023
Brussels Airport Company, the operator of Zaventem airport, posted a net profit of 16 million euros last year. It is the first time in three years that it’s back in the black. “The profit in 2022 was still limited, but it does shed light at the end of the tunnel,” said airport chief Arnaud Feist. […]
May 16, 2023
There will be 66 200 solar panels on the grounds around Ostend airport. Energy company EnergyVision will start installing them there in autumn. Ostend-Bruges airport will so become one of the largest solar parks in Belgium. The project involves an investment of 35 million euros. The electricity generated should power the airport, while part also […]
May 11, 2023
Technology company Uber, which offers taxi rides and meal deliveries with its app, is to expand its services. This summer, it will launch a feature in the UK that will allow users to book flights directly in its app. The feature was launched on Uber’s UK app for multimodal travel options last year, and the […]
May 04, 2023
Brussels Airlines posted sharply higher sales in the first quarter at 280 million euros than a year earlier. However, the airline still lost 44 million euros but maintains that it is “on track for strong black figures for all of 2023”. Parent company Lufthansa also posted a loss in the first quarter, a net loss […]
April 12, 2023
More than 1,6 million passengers in March traveled through Brussels Airport, an increase of 42% compared to March 2022. Furthermore, the share of departing transfer passengers was over 17%, an increase of 84% compared to 2022. Brussels Airport reported this. The increase is partly due to the (extended) semester break in French-speaking schools and the […]
April 11, 2023
Airbus Helicopters, the helicopter manufacturing division of the European aircraft giant Airbus, has signed a contract to supply 50 H160 helicopters to GDAT, one of China’s largest helicopter leasing and operating companies. The order is estimated to be worth between 750 million and 1 billion dollars. It is the most significant H160 order in the […]
April 05, 2023
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, one of Europe’s largest air hubs, will, from 2025-2026, ban night flights and private jets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and noise pollution. Aircraft will be banned from taking off between midnight and 6 a.m. and will not be allowed to land before 5 a.m., the airport’s CEO Ruud Sondag said in […]
April 04, 2023
Planes at Brussels Airport cause strong annoyance to 220 000 residents. As a result, the cost of health damage would amount to more than 1 billion euros annually. This emerged from a new study by Bond Beter Leefmilieu (BBL), the Flemish federation for a better environment. The study, carried out by study agency ENV-ISA at […]
March 30, 2023
Private jet flights in Europe reached record levels last year – most of which were ultra-short journeys. As a result, the number of private jet flights increased by 64% last year, reaching a record high of 572 806. Together, they emitted 3,4 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions. In Belgium alone, private flights more than […]
March 28, 2023
From Brussels Airport you can fly to nine new destinations this summer. These are Toronto (Canada), Billund (Denmark), Seville (Spain), Kayseri (Turkey), Monastir (Tunisia), and Béjaïa, Constantine, Oran, and Tlemcen (Algeria). From Brussels Airport, 59 airlines will thus depart to 175 destinations in summer. Brussels Airlines, with four additional aircraft in its fleet, will fly […]
March 24, 2023
It’s light. It packs a lot of energy. And it could make electric planes a reality. So when Amprius first announced its revolutionary lithium-ion battery pack, there were reasons to be enthusiastic. And cautious. The sector of battery developers is famous for making promises that it finds difficult to keep afterward. But in the case […]
March 24, 2023
Germany’s Dorothea von Boxberg (49) will become the new CEO of Brussels Airlines. The top woman will take the helm of the airline from 15 April. Von Boxberg was, for the past two years, CEO of Lufthansa Cargo, the cargo airline which, like Brussels Airlines, is part of the German airline group Lufthansa. She succeeds […]
March 22, 2023
Brussels Airlines and sister airlines Lufthansa and Swiss are going to the Council of State against the new system of variable airfares at Brussels Airport. The new fares will take effect on 1 April. The airlines’ appeal is against the Terminal Navigation Charges elaborated by Mobility Minister Georges Gilkinet (Ecolo). The charges, which must be […]
March 06, 2023
Brussels Airlines carried over 6,8 million passengers last year, almost double the 2021 figure. That also led to a doubling of revenue, to 1,2 billion euros. On that basis, Brussels Airlines was able to limit the operating loss to 75 million euros, a halving compared to last year. This year, the airline aims to leave […]
February 23, 2023
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and Axxicom Airport Caddy are launching an experiment with self-riding wheelchairs this week. The wheelchairs, equipped with smart technology from WHILL Autonomous Mobility, are already being used successfully at major airports such as Tokyo International Airport in Japan. The wheelchair service should improve customer satisfaction and contribute to Schiphol’s objective to make […]
February 22, 2023
Belgian aerospace company Sonaca joins the Limburg-based start-up SOLiTHOR to develop solid-state batteries for regional aviation and future air taxis (VTOLs). Solid-state batteries are lighter, have more energy density, and are considered safer than current lithium-ion batteries with a fluid electrolyte. SOLiTHOR will be responsible for cell research, development, testing characterization, format design, and production […]
February 22, 2023
Alauda Aeronautics has unveiled its latest iteration of the Airspeeder. This Mk4 version is the first to be designed for manned operation, with previous Airspeeders being remote-controlled. A racing series is scheduled for 2024, but Alauda is still looking for support from OEMs and racing teams. The Airspeeder was first announced in 2019 with a […]
February 01, 2023
On Tuesday, US aircraft maker Boeing delivered the very last sample of its Jumbo 747 jets, identified by the ‘hump’ at the front. With the delivery of the 1 574th example of the 747, the curtain falls on an iconic aircraft, also known as the ‘Queen of the Skies’, that played an important role in […]
February 01, 2023
Peter Gerber steps down as CEO of Brussels Airlines with immediate effect and is also leaving parent company Lufthansa Group. The airline announced that former CEO Christina Foerster will take over in ad interim. Gerber will start as CEO of German airline Condor on 1 February 2024, the latter announced. That 58-year-old Gerber is leaving […]
January 19, 2023
German airline group Lufthansa is the only bidder to take a stake in Italian airline ITA Airways, the successor to Alitalia. This was announced by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance on Wednesday evening, after the deadline. Earlier in the day, French-Dutch airline group Air France-KLM had announced that it would not submit a […]
January 17, 2023
Antwerp Airport reopened its connection with London on Monday. Luxembourg-based airline Luxair is responsible for the link to London City Airport. In the first phase, they will fly to the British capital four times a week. Although flying is climate-friendly compared to before, traveling by Eurostar remains a good deal less polluting, even if the […]
