Brussels Airlines welcomes new destinations in its holiday offer

With travel restrictions evolving and vaccination programs underway, the demand for air travel is slowly picking up. Brussels Airlines has redesigned its network to meet this demand, especially for holiday destinations. Next to the reopening of its leisure destinations, Brussels Airlines also launches flights to Bordeaux in France and Tangier, Nador and Al Hoceima in Morocco. With the opening of these new destinations, the airline emphasizes its important position on the leisure and VFR (Visit Friends and Relatives) market.

Over the past six months, the airline operated a network that focused on essential travel, mainly with flights to and from Africa. Today the airline gives its leisure customers a positive outlook on the summer, together with partners and tour operators. Over the coming months, the airline expects an increase in demand for air travel during the summer holidays. On top of the destinations the airline offers today, following destinations will join the network in the coming months:

Opening in May 2021:

Austria: Vienna ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​
​Greece: Heraklion, Kos, Rhodes
​Israel: Tel Aviv ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​
​Italy: Bologna, Napoli, Rome
​Scotland: Edinburgh ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​
​Slovenia: Ljubljana
​Spain: Bilbao, Ibiza, Palma de Mallorca, Valencia

Opening in June 2021:

Angola: Luanda ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​
​Armenia: Yerevan
​Czech Republic: Prague ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​
​Croatia: Dubrovnik, Split
​England: Birmingham ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​
​France: Bordeaux
​Greece: Corfu, Zakynthos ​ ​ ​ ​
​Hungary: Budapest
​Italy: Bari, Catania, Florence, Milan Linate, Palermo
​Lithuania: Vilnius ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​
​Morocco: Nador, Tangier
​Norway: Oslo ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​
​Poland: Krakow, Warsaw
​Russia: Moscow Sheremetyevo, Saint Petersburg
​Sweden: Gothenburg
​United States: New York, Washington D.C.

Opening in July 2021:

Italy: Olbia (Sardinia)

Opening in August 2021:

Germany: Frankfurt (new destination)

Opening in September 2021:

Switzerland: Basel

New destinations: Bordeaux, Tangier, Nador and Al Hoceima

In addition to the reopening of a large part of its network, Brussels Airlines is also thrilled to add four destination to its portfolio: Bordeaux in France and Al Hoceima, Tangier ​ and Nador in Morocco. These last three destinations will be offered in cooperation with ML Tours. The first flight to Bordeaux will take off on June 20, with two weekly flights on Fridays and Sundays. Nador and Tangier will join the network as of June 26 and 27 respectively. Nador will be connected with Brussels Airport twice a week on Tuesdays and Saturdays, while flights to Tangier will be operated every Wednesday and Sunday. Flights to Al Hoceima will exclusively be bookable through ML Tours.

Next to Bordeaux, Tangier, Nador and Al Hoceima, also Frankfurt joins the Brussels Airlines network for the first time, as the airline announced on February 24th. The first flight from Brussels to Frankfurt will take off on August 2nd.

Africa and North Atlantic

Washington DC and New York are planned to be operated as of June 14. These will be the first North-Atlantic flights of Brussels Airlines since March 21st, 2020. Montreal is planned to join the network on June 15, but given the current travel restrictions in Canada these plans might still alter.

As for the African network, Brussels Airlines gradually increases its flight frequencies to all its African destinations as of mid June, when West African destinations Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Accra (Ghana), Banjul (Gambia) and Dakar (Senegal) are planned to be offered on a daily basis. In Central and East Africa Douala and Yaounde (both in Cameroon), Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Entebbe (Uganda) are also foreseen to be served daily. Luanda joins the network again after more than a year. As of June 15, the Angolan city will be served three times weekly. ​
​The entire overview of the Brussels Airlines network is available on brusselsairlines.com/en-be/destinations

Sanitary measure remain key

Welcoming more passengers means that it is important to emphasize that the airline continues to apply the same Corona measures as before. These include a mandatory face mask during the entire flight (as of arrival at the airport) for every passenger as of six years old, row by row boarding and de-boarding to avoid queues in the aircraft, extra disinfection of the aircraft and of course proper hand hygiene. All the airline’s aircraft are equipped with HEPA filters that continuously supply clean air on board. See the complete overview or measures here.

As usual, the airline asks passengers who feel unwell not to travel, to protect the health of other passengers and the crew. As many countries still have specific restrictions, passengers are required to check the requirements before they travel. And of course the airline continues to offer rebookable tickets, so customers have maximum flexibility to change their travel plans and they can book their flights with peace of mind.

CO2-neutral flights with Compensaid

Recently the Belgian airline launched a new booking platform, offering its customers a broader flight offer aligned with the Lufthansa Group, as well as more options to rebook flights online and the possibility to make flights carbon neutral with Compensaid. It is the first time that Brussels Airlines customers have the option to avoid CO2-emissions by sponsoring Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), the first viable alternative for fossil fuels. The aim of SAF is to reuse carbon from existing sustainable biomass or gases and recycle it back into jet fuel so that it replaces fossil jet fuel refined from petroleum crude oil. The process is a first step towards closing the CO2 cycle.