Brussels Airlines, the national carrier of Belgium, is part of the Lufthansa Group. Within the German lead group Brussels Airlines has cut itself out a place as the Africa route specialist. The Group management has decided that that is the role of the airline, and that Brussels will become more and more the Group’s and Europe’s gateway to sub-Saharan Africa. These are not short flight the carrier has to perform. Also, with the growing volumes come growing fleet needs. So, here’s what the airline’s got planned.
More A330s Coming Brussels Airlines Way
Brussels Airlines doesn’t have a massive fleet, and most planes are narrow bodies used for intra-European flights. Out of the 46-unit fleet only 10 planes are wide bodies capable of covering long range routes. With all of them being Airbus A330-300s.
With that tiny 10 wide body aircraft fleet the airline must serve eighteen destinations in Africa with plans for more to be opened in coming months and years. Talk about spreading thin its fleet.
To remedy such a situation the Lufthansa group is planning to bring additional aircraft into the Brussels Airlines fleet. There will be in fact, 3 more Airbus A330s joining the airline’s fleet in the coming years. Therefore, the total number A330 units will go up to 13.
These planes will certainly be previously used and owned. They will be, in my opinion, passed over to the Belgian carrier from one of the other Lufthansa group carriers. That is my guess simply because, it is what usually happens within the Lufthansa group with secondary carriers.
Brussels Airlines Also Wet Leasing Planes From airBaltic
That not all on the fleet and operations side of things for Brussels Airlines. The carrier will also be getting some other planes specifically to help serve European destinations during the 2025 summer season. However, the airline won’t be purchasing or directly acquiring the planes. It will be wet leasing the planes from another European carrier.
Let’s give that all a bit more color and context. The Belgian to cope with rising passenger volumes during the summer months has reached an agreement with airBaltic to wet lease 4 of its Airbus A220s during the summer season. Therefore, some Brussels Airlines passengers might find themselves flying on an airBaltic plane in 2025. Don’t worry you’ll know in advance which they are. You will either see it marked on the booking page or you will be informed well in advance of the flight. The airline is obliged to do so by international regulations.
Soon New Cabins and Interiors for Those 13 Airbus A330s
Not only will Brussels Airlines be receiving more planes, but they will also soon be reveling new cabin interiors for these aircraft. However, we don’t have much to talk about or comment currently as they will reveal it only at a later stage. All we can say is, let’s hope they get their weight calculations done better than what Lufthansa and SWISS did with their cabin overhaul.
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