Brussels Airlines and its social partners continue to work on the future

Statement

Update - 14.10.2022

"Over the summer the management and social partners of Brussels Airlines convened regularly to tackle the concerns of our crew members and to better balance the workload of all operational staff. All parties agreed that the work-life balance should be healthy, yet realistic in view of the current challenging and competitive climate. A series of improvements to the rostering process have already been implemented. Other measures need more time and will be implemented later on. We continue to look for workload-reducing and/or quality-improving initiatives, with additional meetings for both cockpit and cabin crew together with the crew scheduling department. ​

Today, Friday 14th October, after several sessions with the union representatives, the management of Brussels Airlines will put a proposal on the table to also improve the reward package of the cockpit crew. Given the non-indexation of the pilots’ flexible reward package, we acknowledge the concerns this raises in this community in view of the current exceptional inflation and overall economic recession. On top of the cafeteria plan that allows for a substantial optimisation of the pilots’ salary package, we want to work out a solution that further addresses this concern, while keeping a close eye on our fragile cost position. ​

We are happy that the positive process of collaboration with the social partners that was kicked off at the start of the summer continues at a good pace and we thank our social partners for their commitment and their constructive contribution in making sure our company and our people are given perspective and chances to grow."

The above statement can be quoted in name of Maaike Andries, Spokesperson for Brussels Airlines.


23.08.2022

"On July 4th, the management and social partners of Brussels Airlines took a closer look at the economic and market situation and the possible tracks for Brussels Airlines. It was clear that to create the right conditions for a successful future for the company, a constructive collaboration between management and social partners is crucial. ​

During the summer months, both parties therefore met in a series of workshops to find common ground on workload issues. These workshops have all taken place in a constructive atmosphere, setting a new standard for collaboration between the Brussels Airlines management and its unions.

Today, 23 August, a day-long status meeting takes place to again look at the market situation and the future developments, to review the work that has been done during the summer and to define the way forward, making sure to continue the constructive collaboration that was started in the workshops. Several workload-reducing and/or quality-improving initiatives have already been implemented, while others are under investigation by both parties and will be concluded in the coming months.

Looking at the market pressure and the future of Brussels Airlines, we see a unique opportunity to move forward. Our Reboot Plus restructuring programme yielded good results and we have reached a very strong and competitive cost position. With this cost position - that we must protect carefully - and the constructive collaboration with our social partners, we have the ability to move to the logical next step: strengthening our market position by growing our fleet and our staff. We are currently investigating different growth scenarios that will be rolled out in more detail in the near future. This growth will offer career opportunities for our existing staff.

Winter will still be unpredictable: we don’t know how Covid will develop and have an impact on the market demand, corporate demand is still unstable and operational bottlenecks at airports and system partners will continue to put pressure on our operational stability. To anticipate this challenging winter season we will expand our operational staff in all departments.

Concretely, the decision has been taken to prolong the contracts of 200 temporary cabin crew members, to hire additional external cabin crew and to reinforce our resource planning in order to make sure resource needs are correctly fulfilled. On the cockpit side, we have published job openings for pilots, while in Ground Operations and Maintenance & Engineering we had already started hiring additional staff.

This should increase the operational stability in the winter season while creating a more fair distribution of workload.

We want to thank our social partners for their commitment and their constructive contribution in making sure our company and our people are given perspective and chances to grow."

The above statement can be quoted in name of Maaike Andries, Spokesperson for Brussels Airlines.

 

Overview of previous communications on the social dialogue at Brussels Airlines, can be found here.

Maaike Andries

For media requests only

 

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About Brussels Airlines

Brussels Airlines is the home carrier of Belgium and one of the four network airlines of the Lufthansa Group. It connects the European capital from Brussels Airport with over 90 destinations, 18 of which are in Sub Saharan Africa. The company employs more than 3,500 people and operates 44 aircraft.

Brussels Airlines aims to emit 50% less CO2 by 2030 compared to 2019 and plans to be carbon neutral by 2050. The airline is participating in the Stargate Project led by Brussels Airport and is therefore part of the testing ground for sustainable aviation at its home base. In addition, the airline signed the Circular Economy agreement of the Antwerp Management School in 2021. The airline was the first to transport Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) through the CEPS-pipeline connecting Brussels Airport early 2023. By end 2024, Brussels Airlines will have welcomed five state-of-the-art Airbus A320neo allowing the airline to significantly lower its CO2- and noise-emissions on its medium-haul network.

As an ambassador of its country, Brussels Airlines brings the world to Belgium and the best of Belgium to the world, among others through collaborations with Belgian Star Chefs, Belgian culinary products and the Belgian Icons, specially painted aircraft that honour a Belgian iconic person, team or event to promote Belgian culture worldwide.

More information on brusselsairlines.com 


About Star Alliance

Established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance, the Star Alliance network was founded on a customer value proposition of global reach, worldwide recognition, and seamless service. Since its inception, it has offered the largest and most comprehensive airline network, with a strong emphasis on enhancing the customer experience throughout the entire Alliance journey.

Overall, the Star Alliance network currently offers more than 17,500 daily flights to over 1,150 airports in almost 190 countries.

Star Alliance Press Office: +65 8729 6691; mediarelations@staralliance.com
More information on staralliance.com

Contact

b.house Zone General Aviation - Airport Building 26 1831 Diegem

+32 2 723 89 90

press@brusselsairlines.com

www.brusselsairlines.com