The Belgian airline TUI fly will only station one long-haul plane at Brussels Airport next summer, instead of two. As a result, some long-haul destinations will be dropped from its schedules and others will be flown to less often.
Making the announcement on Wednesday, TUI spokesperson Piet Demeyere cited high energy prices as the cause of the decisions. The tour operator TUI has been forced to pass on its fuel surcharges to passengers, which have cost up to €300 more for distant destinations in recent months.
Many Belgian travellers are not willing to pay such high amounts on top of the cost of a ticket: “For destinations like the Caribbean, supply was often higher than demand last summer,” explains Demeyere.
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The long-haul aircraft that will no longer be stationed in Brussels, a Boeing 787-Dreamliner, is moving to the Netherlands where demand is more stable, in particular for the Netherlands Antilles (Dutch island territories in the Carribean).
“It’s about deploying our services where they best meet demand,” the spokesperson explained. “We will then see what happens after next summer.” Since only one Dreamliner will fly from Brussels Airport, destinations such as Miami and Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) will disappear from next summer's destinations from Belgium.
The other destinations will be maintained – Jamaica, Cuba, Mexico and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic – but the frequency will be reduced. Yet Demeyere was doubtful that many customers would notice and predicted that “a maximum of ten people” should be affected by the change in schedule.
