Brussels Airlines expands long haul fleet with additional Airbus A 330-300
Brussels Airlines signed a Letter of Intent to extend the company’s long haul fleet with an additional Airbus 330-300. The aircraft will be scheduled as from late 2007 on the company’s long haul network and will perform ad hoc flights in the meantime. Thanks to this expansion Brussels Airlines offers additional and direct employment to dozens of employees whilst improving its flight offering and the quality of its operations.
This year, Brussels Airlines is set to launch a brand new travel concept on its European flights. At the same time, the airline is determined to make 2007 the year wherein the expansion of its long haul network will be kicked off.
After last year’s investment of close to 10 million euro in the comfort upgrade of the Airbus A330-300 fleet, Brussels Airlines has just now signed a Letter of Intent for an additional Airbus A 330-300. The contract with the leasing company will be finalized over the next coming months.
The additional aircraft will reinforce the long haul fleet in the spring of this year and will be used on ad hoc basis during the summer season. As from late 2007 and after an investment in flat bed business class seats and other state of the art inflight services among other things, the aircraft will be used to serve new long haul destinations and/or increase frequencies on existing routes. More information is soon to be released.
Thanks to this fleet expansion, Brussels Airlines expects to welcome close to an additional eighty thousand new long haul passengers on a yearly basis in its home base Brussels. The airline’s transfer traffic to and from the European network is also expected to increase with forty thousand passengers. Furthermore, the fleet expansion will surely further improve the overall quality of the airline’s long haul operations.
Employment
Thanks to the additional Airbus 330-300 Brussels Airlines will create direct employment for dozens of people in the next coming months, mainly for cockpit and cabin crew. New jobs with the subcontractors in Brussels Airport will also by created.
Schedule improvement
“Despite the fact that there is an acute shortage of long haul aircraft on today’s lease market, we managed to expand our fleet with an additional Airbus A330-300”, says Brussels Airlines Chief Executive Officer Philippe Vander Putten. “This investment proves that we acknowledge the importance of the growth of our long haul activities. The expansion allows us to even better service the growing number of Brussels Airlines customers in the future through better quality and an improved schedule”.
