Brussels Airport has been crowned the overall winner of the Routes Europe 2018 Marketing Awards. Leon Verhallen, the airport's head of aviation development, said: “We had not been nominated for two years in a row, so we are absolutely delighted to win this award and be recognised by our European clients."
Ahead of Routes Europe 2018 in Bilbao, Routesonline provides a snapshot of Spain’s leading international airlines and airports, as well as the most used aircraft types on international flights.
The shortlists for the prestigious Routes Europe 2018 Marketing Awards have been revealed, with 17 airports and six destinations in the running for an award.
Routesonline looks back at an eventful second half of 2017 which included the 23rd World Routes taking place in Barcelona, the failures of Monarch and Air Berlin, and Airbus' A380 celebrating a decade of commercial flight.
bmi Regional is planning to spread its wings with an expanding repertoire of routes in niche European destinations. The airline's Jochen Schnadt talks possible future partnerships, aircraft orders and avoiding Brexit chaos.
Fresh from winning the inaugural outstanding contribution award at World Routes 2017, Brussels Airport’s head of aviation development Léon Verhallen opens up about his greatest achievements, the future of airline marketing and how the airport is recovering from a terrorist attack less than two years ago.
Irish regional carrier CityJet has secured a two-year wet-lease deal with Brussels Airlines to operate three Sukhoi SSJ100 Superjets for the Belgian flag carrier on routes from Brussels Airport from April 2017. The deal follows a formal tender from Brussels Airlines to support its network needs as it completes the retirement of its Avro RJ100 fleet from commercial operation.
Around a month after operations recommenced at Brussels Airport after the terrorist attacks of March 22, 2016, the number of passengers per flight has been rising faster than expected, so a new flight schedule has been drawn up to enable all passengers to leave in complete safety and comfort.
The twin explosions at the airport on March 22, 2016 were shortly followed by another at a metro station in the centre of the Belgian capital and left about 34 dead and 250 wounded. So-called Islamic State (IS) has said it was behind the attacks and warned that more would follow. But, how can and will the industry react?
Star Alliance partners Brussels Airlines and United Airlines have moved quickly to partly fill the void left following Jet Airways’ decision to close its scissor hub at Brussels Airport from spring next year. The main gateway to the Belgian capital city is a key European gateway for the airline grouping and accounts for around 52 per cent of the departure capacity.
The new Brussels – Thessaloniki route will support the strong Greek diaspora in Belgium and southern Netherlands. Many Greeks who live in Belgium have their roots in Northern Greece and return to their birthplace each summer.
The revised Amsterdam operation and agreement with KLM will enable Jet Airways to increase its coverage of the European market, albeit on a codeshare basis. Alongside its existing Brussels services the carrier currently only serves two other European points: London Heathrow (daily from Delhi and twice daily from Mumbai) and Paris Charles De Gaulle (daily from Mumbai).
The new flying for Brussels Airlines is being made possible by the positioning of one of its Embraer ERJ-145s into the Belgian capital. This aircraft will enable it to offer an improved flight schedule on its existing East Midlands – Brussels route and enable UK business travellers to spend a full day in Brussels and return in the evening, without having to overnight in the city.
Jet Airways currently offers a mini hub operation at Brussels Airport with daily flights from Delhi and Mumbai in India connecting in the Belgian capital to daily continuation flights to Newark, USA and Toronto, Canada, but changes to its business strategy after United Arab Emirates (UAE) national carrier, Etihad Airways became an equity partner mean this demand is not being more efficiently handled via Abu Dhabi International Airport.
At the launch of its summer 2016 schedule, Brussels Airlines confirms new routes will be introduced from Brussels to Belfast City, Crete, Jerez, while new winter routes to Las Palmas in Gran Canaria and Tenerife will be continued into the summer.
Although this will be the only non-stop flight between Japan and Belgium, more than 85,000 passengers a year are flying between the two countries, a figure that has been on the rise in each of the last four years. When you consider the ground leakage from Belgium to neighbouring countries already connected directly to Japan, the market becomes more sizeable.
The five-times-weekly operation will commence from September 14, 2015, and will be good news for many EU officials and businessmen who commute between Bremen and the European capital via other European airports.
An additional ten airports worldwide have been added to the approved list of airports to offer preclearance facilities to passengers travelling to the US.