Brussels Airlines and Lufthansa Group join forces in one Belgian sales organization

On July 1st, Brussels Airlines and the other Lufthansa Group airlines bring together their sales activities in Belgium for the travel agents, tour operators, corporates and small and medium enterprises. Patrick Artiel will head the Sales Belgium department.

As a member of the Lufthansa Group, Brussels Airlines already cooperates closely with Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian Airlines, but the sales activities on the Belgian market were still separated. This will change next month, when the airlines will be represented by one integrated sales organization for the Belgian market, under the lead of Brussels Airlines at the headquarters in b.house.

The 30-member sales team will become the point of contact of all airlines of the Lufthansa Group in Belgium for travel agents, tour operators, SME’s and corporate accounts. Only the marketing activities as well as direct sales (call center, websales, group sales) remain separate.

The new sales team will be led by Patrick Artiel. With over 30 years of aviation experience he built up at Sabena, Swiss, Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines, Patrick Artiel has the perfect profile for the position.

“The merging of our sales efforts is a natural move in the Lufthansa Group integration, which is being implemented not only in Belgium, but also in several other European countries”, says Patrick Artiel, Head of Lufthansa Group Sales Belgium. We were in fact already offering more and more Lufthansa Group sales contracts to the Belgian travel industry. The integration is very good news for the travel agents, corporate travel managers and tour operators, who now have one key account manager for all Lufthansa Group airlines. We will be able to be closer to our business partners and offer even more service, another proof that we continue to invest in our relationship with our business-to-business customers.”

Steffen Weinstok, General Manager Lufthansa France & Benelux, adds: “This integration is indeed the logic step to be closer to the customer by having one single responsibility for all four group airlines. Our business-to-business partners will in future get the entire competence for all Lufthansa Group Airlines by their dedicated Account Manager as we combine the knowledge and experience from four airlines within one single team.

Currently the customer portfolio of each key account manager is being put together, with the aim to keep as much as possible the same clients and their current key accounts together. A Sales Blitz Road Show will be held during the summer season and several other sales activities are planned to strengthen the ties with the business-to-business partners and the travel industry. Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian will henceforth be jointly represented at travel trade fairs and events as well.