One of the main issues of the beginning of 2016 for Brussels Airlines is the introduction of the new EASA flight time/duty time rules. The high attendance at the presentation made in our office in December shows the high interest of our members for this issue. Unfortunately, the company declined our offer to review the draft of the new chapter 7 before approval by the BCAA. As a result, some modifications need to be brought to avoid going beyond the legal limits.

The start of the year was also marked by the decease of one of our cabin crew after contracting malaria. This is a sad reminder that we always have to remain vigilant for our safety while on night stop abroad, being for political or medical reasons. Furthermore, if something happens when you are back home, we strongly advise you to inform the medical staff that you have been into unusual countries, to ensure they look for diagnoses out of their usual procedures.

Regarding the terrorist attacks at Brussels airport, a few things can be highlighted. Given the location of the explosions, the ground staff was in first line. Fortunately, there were no casualties among our staff members but some of them were badly injured and spent several weeks in an hospital. But psychological impact will probably take more time to heal.

On the pilot side, the events had a huge impact on our operations as we are exclusively flying from BRU airport, which remained closed for many days after the attack. Flight planning had to be adapted on short notice while moving crews to other airports in Belgium as well as abroad.

Where possible, flights were performed from Antwerp and Liege as alternate operating airports, reaching their maximum capacity and leading to more problems. Long-hauls flight had to leave from abroad in partner airlines hub like Zurich and Frankfurt. The financial impacts for the company still need to be assessed.

As you know, the Lufthansa Group owns currently 45% of the company. The rest of the parts are linked to an option to buy the full company, but this has been postponed a few times already. Unfortunately, a final decision was to be released close to the Brussels airport events and it was postponed again to September.

Rumours have been going around about a possible split between LH and MH, a take over from a Lufthansa subsidiary like Germanwings or Eurowings or an integration into those entities. We will anyway have to wait after the peak season to lift some uncertainties about our future.

On the financial returns on investments, the good news was the announcement of positive financial results by the company in 2015. In respect of the agreement made under the “Beyond” plan, a financial bonus is now paid to the pilots for the increased productivity and flexibility savings made with the implementation of this plan.

Regarding the Avro phase out, the schedule for the pilots training onto the replacement aircraft has been released: the last crews will be trained by the end of 2017. Only a few uncertainties remain.

Brussel Airlines is hiring ab-initio pilots. Even with the planned conversion of Avro pilots, new pilots need to be hired on the Airbus fleet, witch is good news for our Belgian students.

The company contacted several Belgian schools to present their potential candidates at the company selections. However only 40-50 candidates were presented by ATOs. This is surprisingly low considering the numbers of student pilots graduating every year in Belgium. Our newly reactivated Job Seeker team (you can read an article about it in this cockpit flash) will undoubtedly keep an eye on it.

Recently one of our A330 suffered from a technical problem on one engine. As a result, burnt oil smell was noticed in the aircraft. Cabin air quality is important on daily operations and even more in cases like this one. As a reminder, fume events must be reported according to regulation 367/2014. BeCA has a dedicated team following that issue (http://www.beca.be/safety-issues/cabin-air.html).

Brussels Airlines is involved in talks with the government and union representatives about a pension plan for us. At the moment, the issue is whether pilots should be considered as a zwaar beroep / métier pénible or not.

Those of you who attended the BeCA presentation about pensions know a bit more about that. We need to point out that being included in this group would have some advantages compared to now, but might as well lead to some disadvantages and what may be good for a category of workers might not be the same for us pilots who have always had special working conditions. Our BeCA pension team is monitoring the situation, as you can read above.

Christophe Sambre, Vice-President Brussels Airlines