By Thibaut Jacques-Houssa, BeCA Delegate at Brussels Airlines

Following the bad financial situation of Brussels Airlines, the company implemented, in the end of 2012, the plan “Beyond 2012-2013” with four main objectives:

• Reduce the imbalance between summer and winter revenues by tailoring the fleet and available crews around seasonality
• Reduce the overall support costs by 15%
• Take out complexity by simplifying fleet composition
• Create a better balance between medium and long-haul network for the development of a successful hub

Two years after the implementation of the plan, it’s time to make a first assessment of the situation.

The concept of seasonality has indeed been implemented, mainly on the A319/320 fleet. On the one hand, the activity during summer was increased and we expect that more than 60 contracts pilots will fly for the company in summer 2015. On the other hand, the activity during winter was reduced and some pilots have chosen to fly part-time only during the winter season. However, contractors will still be present this winter.

More than any other staff, the pilots have been highly impacted by the plan and made a lot of concessions: a part-time regime was imposed in 2013 to all pilots, the baremic salary grid has been frozen, the FT/DT rules and monthly production increased, the career plan was reviewed, etc. This resulted in a cost reduction of 32% in 2013 for the pilots category.

Despite the strategy defined in the plan, four A320s were added to the medium-haul fleet and the expansion of the long-haul sector is on standby. The management defends this 180° turn by invoking the unexpected arrival of the low-cost carriers. They however fail to explain why the plan was abandoned well before anyone involved knew Ryanair was coming in BRU. It is equally hard to understand why they did not expand the LH sector, which had been presented as a sine qua non condition to improve the company’s revenues.

In 2013, Brussels Airlines lost 21,95 mio€ and the prediction for 2014 is only slightly better. Although the number of passengers carried and the load factor have greatly increased, revenues have not.

Those numbers indicates clearly that the structural and organizational measures taken must be re-evaluated in order to bring the so expected increase on revenue and benefits in the years to come.