New display paint-scheme for the Belgian Air Force Agusta A109BA Hirundo.

On 11 april 2012, the new display paint for the Belgian Air Force Agusta A109BA left the Koksijde airbase paintshop for Beauvechain. The Koksijde painters did a great job:


Follow this link to the Belgian Wings website page:

http://www.belgian-wings.be/Webpages/Navigator/Photos/MilltaryPics/post_ww2/Agusta%20A109BA/Agusta%20A109BA%20H24.html

or the Scramble Forum for pictures taken by Wim Houquet:

http://forum.scramble.nl/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=84117

Brussels Airlines starts summer with lots of novelties

A new scheduled service to New York JFK, a daily flight to Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg and frequency increases to numerous destinations. Brussels Airlines foresees lots of novelties for the  summer season.

Long Haul

In the course of the summer season a new long haul cabin, equipped with comfortable flat bed seats in Business Class, ergonomic Economy Class seats and a revolutionary in-flight entertainment system, will gradually be introduced on the Brussels Airlines intercontinental flights. 

United States
1 June 2012 will be a historic date for Brussels Airlines : from that date onwards the airline will fly daily to New York JFK.  The return of Belgian aviation to the USA after an absence of 10 years was warmly welcomed by the travel trade and by Brussels Airlines' customers. In the past weeks over 25.000 passengers have booked a ticket to the Big Apple. Numerous European destinations of Brussels Airlines will be smoothly connected with the new New York service through an easy transit in Brussels Airport.

Africa
This summer Brussels Airlines increases its frequencies to many African destinations. This substantially enhances the flight offer and the flexibility for the passengers.
From April onwards Brussels Airlines will fly daily (instead of 4 times a week) to Abidjan (Ivory Coast). To Douala and Yaounde (Cameroon) 5 weekly flights (instead of respectively 3 and 2 flights) are offered. Also Nairobi (Kenya, 4 weekly flights) and Bujumbura (Burundi, 3 weekly flights) get an additional frequency per week. From 1 June till 28 September an additional weekly flight will be operated to Kigali (Rwanda, 5 times a week) and Entebbe (Uganda, 4 times a week).
There’s also good news for those travelling with Brussels Airlines to Kinshasa (D.R Congo) this summer. The airline increases its direct flights between Brussels Airport and the Congolese capital : 5 of the 7 weekly flights will then be non-stop with an arrival in the late afternoon. All return flights are direct. Thanks to Korongo Airlines, a new Congolese airline that works closely together with Brussels Airlines and operates according to European safety standards, the Brussels Airlines passengers will be able to combine an intercontinental Brussels-Kinshasa flight with a connecting domestic flight to Lubumbashi. These connections are possible as from 1st of May.

Short & Medium Haul

The European fleet renewal will continue throughout the summer. A couple of comfortable Airbus A 319/320 aircraft will enter the fleet to replace the older aircraft, equipped with seats that allow more legspace. In view of its care for the environment, Brussels Airlines uses on some destinations the efficient and economical Dash8 Q400 regional aircraft, allowing the airline to offer high frequencies to some regional destinations.
Europe
From  21 May onwards Brussels Airlines will offer 11 weekly flights between  Brussels Airport and the regional airport Europort Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg. On weekdays a morning and evening flight is planned. In weekends Brussels Airlines will operate a flight on Sunday evening. The Europort Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, located in the border area of Switzerland/France/Germany, is the gateway to a strong economic region. The new flight offer allows same-day returns and is adapted to the demand of business travellers.

The Hungarian capital Budapest gets a third daily frequency enabling passengers to fly in the morning, afternoon (new) and evening. Flights to many holiday destinations are being increased (Florence, Malaga, Faro, Nice, Barcelona, Lisbon, ...). For instance, in July and August Brussels Airlines will fly 3 times a day to Malaga.  Athens will be served once a day during the entire summer and even twice a day in July and August. Also Catania (Sicily) returns to the Brussels Airlines summer offer.
Moscow
Thanks to a capacity and frequency increase on the Brussels – Moscow Domodedovo route Brussels Airlines offers this summer 13 weekly flights between Brussels Airport and the Russian capital.
Tel Aviv
Due to the increased demand Brussels Airlines offers an 8th weekly flight to Tel Aviv during the entire summer. On top of the 7 existing evening and night flights Tel Aviv will now also be served every Sunday thanks to a new day flight.

Good to know
During the summer season 98.723 flight hours are planned, an increase compared to the previous summer when 95.836 hours were flown.
This summer season Brussels Airlines will perform many holiday flights on behalf of tour operators, not only out of Brussels Airport but also out of many other European airports, a total of more than 2.500 flight hours.


Source: Brussels Airlines Press Release

Jet Airways plans to land its global operations in Munich

In a move that would give Jet Airways a cutting edge advantage over its rivals, the country's largest private carrier is likely to move a large part of its international operations to Munich in Germany by the year end, said two people familiar with the development.

Those in the know of the matter also said the development is a precursor to the Naresh Goyal promoted airline joining Star Alliance, one of the biggest airline alliances in the world that flies over 600 million passengers around the globe annually.

Jet already has a European hub in Brussels, in Belgium which it established in 2007 and it might reduce operations considerably to the European city or slowly shift base to Munich, the exact strategy of the airline for its scissor operations at Brussels could not be ascertained immediately.

Jet Airways spokesperson said the in a reply to The Economic Times query that the story is speculative while Jet's CEO, Nikos Kardsis declined any such move being contemplated by the Indian carrier. Another Jet senior official Sudheer Raghavan also said that the query is speculative.

But the 35 new flights to Munich requested by Jet Airways from the ministry of civil aviation for its winter schedule tell a different story. The move comes at a time when the ministry has allowed private carriers to have equal rights with Air India for international operations.

Jet's shift in favour of Munich can also be gauged from its recent application when it applied for an additional flight from its current hub at Brussels that came with some great sops in airport charges and an interline agreement with Brussels airlines.

Jet currently operates 200 international flights daily with a fleet of 101 aircraft and is said to be looking to add some more wide-body aircraft to its fleet as and when the market conditions stabilise.

In terms of revenues, Jet Airways earns almost 60% of its revenues from international operation, second to Air India that has about 70% of revenues from international flights.

Jet's preference for Munich over Brussels clearly springs from the fact that Munich fits well with Jet's scheme of expansion within Europe with flights to Milan, Paris and other routes.

Source: The Economic Times