[AMcWhirter]

This airline, which used to fly Brussels-Hong Kong in 2018, and had high hopes of operating to China will no longer operate scheduled passenger flights from October 3.

Currently most of Air Belgium’s scheduled flights include those serving Africa.

Air Belgium is cancelling all scheduled passenger flights to focus on ACMI and freight

[Olneyflyer]

I think that with the ongoing shortage of available aircraft and the high ACMI rates availabe this probably makes sense. With the expansion plans coming out of Brussels Airlines and their financial backing of the Lufhansa Group it was always going to be tall order especially when you look at the size of the home market and Amsterdam and Paris only being a short train journey away.

1 user thanked author for this post.

sparkyflier

[samuelwilliams]

It’s unfortunate that Air Belgium will be ending its scheduled passenger service so quickly. I wish them the best as they reassess their business strategy going forward. All airlines have faced enormous challenges since the onset of Covid-19, so let’s hope this proves to be merely a temporary setback as the industry works to stabilize instead of signifying the end entirely. With luck, they may be able to resume normal operations once market conditions improve.

[sparkyflier]

Olneyflyer – you mentioned expansion plans for Brussels Airlines – do you know what these are? It would be interesting to know more about them.

[cwoodward]

It was always doubtful if this airline would make it in the passenger market and if my recall is correct that was discussed on this forum a couple of years back.

ACMI looks, as Olneyflyer mentions the only way forward for them at present. However this market is cyclical- very buoyant with high rates obtainable at the moment due to a worldwide aircraft shortage but of course this will not always be the case. I dont see any mention of expansion though.

Key players in Aircraft ACMI Leasing include Atlas Air Inc, ABX Air, ASL Aviation Holdings, Air Atlanta Iceland ic, Smartlynx and Avion Express, etc. These top five players occupy about 76% market share.
Cargo is the largest part of the ACMI market, with a share about 52%.

I wish Air Belgium well but they are a small seemingly underfunded player who perhaps will not be around for too long.

[Author]

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