Brussels Airport Zaventem (BRU) is set to become a major hub for the USA and Africa, if plans by Lufthansa in collaboration with Star Alliance partner United Airlines come to fruition.
Speaking last week in Frankfurt, Carsten Spohr, Lufthansa CEO said a “major project with United” was in the pipeline to tap into “Africa traffic via Brussels”.
Lufthansa group subsidiary, Brussels Airlines, already has transatlantic partnerships with United Airlines and Air Canada in place. Brussels Airport welcomes daily United flights from three major US airports: Chicago O’Hare (ORD); New York-Newark (EWR), and Washington-Dulles (IAD). Brussels Airlines, for its part, operates every day to New York-JFK.
In terms of its African routes, the carrier has form as the inheritor to “Sabena” – the national airline of Belgium between 1923 and 2001, which pioneered long-haul African flights and had significant ties to the continent. The carrier currently serves 18 destinations on the African continent and is planning to ramp up its long-haul services to overtake pre-Covid-19 schedules – as well as a significant relaunch of its short-haul offering.
Brussels Airlines is due a delivery of ten Airbus A330s for operation on long-haul routes. A company spokesperson said there were “capacities” there to turn the Belgian capital into a “true global hub for passengers travelling to and from Africa.”
While details of the new project are yet to come, the build-up seems to suggest a big deal, with Spohr saying “we expect a lot” from it. He has also indicated that enough reconsolidation has taken place and may have even “overshot the mark” and that, as a result, it is time to grow Brussels Airlines routes into Africa again.
Echoing this, a Brussels Airlines spokesperson told aero.de “it’s no secret that we have ambitious growth plans for our long-haul network.” In addition, Brussels Airlines CEO Dorothea von Boxberg, in the role for under a year, has made the expansion of Brussels as an intercontinental hub one of her key goals. She told Luchtvaartnieuws Magazine last month the airline was going “to expand our network and offer more flights”.
The company made record profits last year but on the ground, is dogged by industrial action by ground staff, cabin crews and pilots, who have announced a four-day strike from 23 March in response to stalled negotiations over wages and working conditions.
