Brussels Airlines has announced it will resume flights from 15 June, but with a reduced offer of destinations.
The company plans to add destinations as time and circumstances allow. The cuts have nothing to do with the restructuring plan announced last week, which also included job losses, a reduced fleet and loss of destinations.
The initial plan is to start up again after being grounded since March 21, with a small number of destinations aimed at business as well as leisure travellers. Others will be added as time goes on.
“That will depend on the evolution of demand for tickets, and the current travel restrictions in the countries where Brussels Airlines operates,” the company said. In the first instance, the airline will resume flights to destinations in Germany, Switzerland, Greece, Portugal and Spain.
In the longer term, however, the company plans to send more passengers from Brussels through hubs operated by parent company Lufthansa in Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich. That means fewer direct flights, particularly to Lanzarote, Madeira, Kos and Rhodes, as well as Saint Petersburg, Krakow, Warsaw and Vilnius. Two African destinations, Conakry and Ouagadougou, will also disappear from the roster.
Service will be maintained for flights to Corsica, Sicily and Crete, as well as Spanish destinations Alicante, Bilbao, Ibiza, Las Palmas, Mallorca and Tenerife.
But flights to Seville and Valencia are to go, together with Bristol, Hanover, Moscow, Billund – the home of Lego Land in Denmark, Marrakesh and the Greek island of Santorini.
Alan Hope
The Brussels Times
