Brussels Airlines

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Brussels Airlines

IATA SN	ICAO None yet	Callsign ESTAIL
Founded		7 November 2006
Hubs		Brussels Airport
Frequent flyer program		Privilege
Member lounge		Business Centre
Fleet size		49
Destinations		67
Headquarters		Zaventem (Brussels), Belgium
Key people		Philippe Vander Putten (CEO); Etienne Davignon, Chairman
Website: http://www.brusselsairlines.com/

Brussels Airlines is the Belgian national carrier and is based at Brussels Airport in Belgium. The airline is a member of IATA and the Association of European Airlines (AEA).

1 History
2 Service
3 Destinations
4 Fleet
5 Livery
6 External links
7 References

[edit] History

Brussels Airlines was created following the merger of SN Brussels Airlines (SNBA) and Virgin Express. On April 12, 2005, SN Airholding, the company behind SNBA signed an agreement with Richard Branson, giving it the holding control over Virgin Express. On 31 March 2006 SNBA and Virgin Express announced their fusion into a single company. On November 7, 2006, the new name, Brussels Airlines, was announced at a press conference at Brussels Airport. Brussels Airlines started operations on 25 March 2007.

The airline hopes to achieve at least a 55% market share at Brussels Airport. Brussels Airlines will add long haul destinations, notably to North America, and will attempt to strengthen the position of the airline in Africa. The airline also announced it wanted to expand its long haul fleet, which at the time comprised of three Airbus A330 planes. In January 2007, the company announced it had acquired a fourth Airbus A330-300, coming from the defunct company Air Madrid.

[edit] Service

On European flights, the airline offers two types of tickets, b-flex and b-light.

b-flex is the more expensive ticket, offering full service, such as free newspapers and free catering.
b-light is the cheaper ticket option, with snacks and drinks available to buy onboard.

On long-haul flights, plus flights to Helsinki, Moscow and Tel Aviv, Brussels Airlines continues to offer both the traditional economy and business classes.

Brussels Airlines has continued codeshare agreements arranged by its predecessor, SN Brussels Airlines.

[edit] Destinations

Further information: Brussels Airlines destinations

[edit] Fleet

^{[citation needed]}

Type	Number	Seats
Airbus A319-100	3	132
Airbus A330-300	4	264
Avro RJ85	14	82
Avro RJ100	12	97
BAe 146-200	6	84
Boeing 737-400	5	164
Boeing 737-300	5	142

Total aircraft: 49

[edit] Livery

The livery is similar to that of SN Brussels Airlines, with minor changes. The tail now shows the new "dotted B" logo of the airline instead of the Sabena S-tail. The callsign remains ESTAIL nonetheless. The orange cheat line on the fuselage has been removed. The light blue belly colour has been extended to cover the whole length of the aircraft. The name "Brussels Airlines" is written in dark blue on the top part of the fuselage, preceded by the airlines "b" logo. Most airplanes have an altered "b" logo after several superstitious travellers complained about the thirteen dots bringing bad luck. The logo now consists of fourteen dots.