For several months, the Covid-19 coronavirus has been spreading worldwide. What was initially qualified as a “bad flu” burst into a global pandemic. This forced authorities, including the Belgian government, to impose unprecedented measures that are impacting our daily lives. We can only encourage you to adhere to those measures to limit the spreading of the pandemic and hope that the situation will improve in the coming weeks.

On top of the sanitary impact, the Covid-19 crisis is badly damaging the economy and aviation in particular. Some European airlines that were already struggling to survive went bankrupt (Flybe) or decided to downsize their fleet dramatically (Norwegian). Others, including the majors, are cutting capacity, forcing their pilots and employees into temporary unemployment. Belgian airlines are not different. You can find below a summary of the situation of the airlines with a Belgian crew base. We will issue another e-news dealing with technical unemployment due to force majeure since many Belgian pilots will be forced into it.

It is very important to keep in mind that the need for air transport remains, even if the demand from passengers is temporarily affected by the current sanitary crisis. Aviation will restart and we all have to be ready for it.

We are living very difficult times, and we know now that aviation will probably be shattered after this storm. Already, BeCA is reaching out to national and international authorities (through cooperation with ECA and IFALPA) to see how we can secure your future. But for now, your priority must be to stay healthy and take good care of yourself and your loved ones!

Air Belgium

Following the closure of Charleroi airport planned on March 24, the last scheduled flight to the French Antilles was operated on Saturday 21. There are 15 self-employed pilots on a total of 60 pilots. No lay-offs so far, nor temporary unemployment, nor termination of contracts of the contractors. Pilots did not receive any additional information from the company.

ASL Airlines Belgium

Until now, the impact on production is quite limited. The challenge is mainly operational, due to restrictions imposed by local authorities, decreasing hotel offer, service providers suspending activities. Routes and layovers could until now be adapted to the situation (change of layover country, flights up and down). Contrary to passenger flights, the demand for cargo flights is steady, to bring supplies essential to the fight against the coronavirus. Requests for transatlantic flights even increased due to the drop in belly cargo capacity.

Brussels Airlines

Due to a drop in bookings and a high rate of cancellations, all medium and long-haul flights will be canceled between March 21 and April 19, apart from a few repatriation flights. The same goes for the four A330s based in DUS (ACMI for Eurowings). All employees are forced into technical unemployment. Contractors and freelance pilots have been dismissed. The company is investigating stopping all the wet-lease contracts (5 aircraft) and has asked for State aids. Within the Lufthansa Group, capacity has been reduced below 20% and Austrian Airlines also stopped operations.

Cityjet

Cityjet is operating, among others, wet-lease flights on behalf of Brussels Airlines. Starting March 20, the 3 CRJs (+ 2 spares) based in BRU will be grounded. The BRU based crews expect to be forced into technical unemployment. The future of the BRU base depends on the future of Brussels Airlines.

EAT/DHL

DHL night operations are still going, even if the network structure is affected. No more day stops (layovers) in “risk zones” countries (as defined by the Robert Koch Institute) which are replaced by ups and downs from the main hubs. The role of express cargo remains very important to link up factories and offices in various countries, as well as the supply of critical goods.

Ryanair

Production dropped initially by 20% due to the situation in Italy and Poland. With the latest developments in France and Spain, all flight operations will be stopped from March 24. According to an internal memo, all aircraft will continue to fly once a week to maintain airworthiness and crew proficiency. Scenery flights will be planned (SID, cruise with Flaps up configuration, STAR).
Ryanair wanted to impose unpaid leave to its pilots, but this is not legal according to Belgian labour law. The company is now awaiting authorisation from the Belgian authorities to implement Technical Unemployment. The flight hours allocated to contractors dropped drastically but there is no plan to ground them.

TUI Belgium

TUI Belgium will stop all operations from March 23. Some repatriation flights might still be performed later on. All employees will be forced into Technical Unemployment.