The first flight from Brussels to Hong Kong was planned to take off in October 2017,[5] however this was postponed as the airline lacked an air operator's certificate (AOC).[8] In December 2017, Air Belgium announced that the first flight should now take place in March 2018 from Brussels South Charleroi Airport instead of Brussels Airport due to lower airport taxes and easy accessibility; it was also announced that, for business class and premium passengers, the airline would operate from a new dedicated terminal which would be built at the executive terminal, while economy passengers would use the regular terminal.[4][9]
On 14 March 2018, it was announced that the airline had received its AOC from the Belgian civil aviation authority and planned to begin operating scheduled flights from mid-April.[10] On 29 March 2018, the airline flew its first revenue service by operating its Airbus A340-300 in Air Belgium livery on behalf of Surinam Airways from Amsterdam to Paramaribo.[11] On 25 April 2018, the airline announced a delay to its own inaugural flight (to Hong Kong) from 30 April to 3 June 2018 due to not having the rights to operate in Russian airspace.[12]
Since the commencement of the service for the first destination, it started operating a scheduled service between Charleroi and Hong Kong. Moreover, the other aircraft of the fleet was provided to Air France for a daily service between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Libreville during the 2018 summer season.
On 21 September 2018, the airline announced that scheduled operations between Charleroi and Hong Kong would be suspended during winter,[13][14] and the airline would instead focus on charter operations. The route should have restarted at the end of March 2019,[13] but two weeks before the planned date Air Belgium instead announced that they would be terminating the route and working towards starting new services to mainland China in mid-2019 and the Americas in late 2019 or early 2020.[15]
On 30 January 2021, Air Belgium announced that cargo flights would start with four Airbus A330-200F based in Liège Airport, on behalf of French shipping company CMA CGM, which purchased the airframes and contracted with Air Belgium to fly them.[17] These four planes are progressively re-immatriculated in France during the 2022-2023 winter. [18] On 1 July 2021, Air Belgium announced it would add two Airbus A330-900s to its fleet and operate services between Brussels Airport and Mauritius from 15 October 2021.[19]
In November 2022, Air Belgium announced the need of a recapitalisation to avoid bankruptcy after accumulating severe losses.[20] The airline already received €19 million during the same year from its Chinese minority-owners which have been already used up as the airline's primary charter business did not fully recover in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.[2] The airline subsequently also announced it would cut and suspend several passenger routes.[21][2] In January 2023, Air Belgium announced that sufficient funding has been secured from private investors to keep operations running while there was no further financial support from the state.[22]
Destinations
As of September 2022[update], Air Belgium operates or has previously operated scheduled passenger flights to the following destinations:[23]
^ abcbrusselstimes.com - Charter airline Air Belgium needs €10 million to stay afloat 10 November 2022
^ abc"Air Belgium Central Balance Sheet Office". nbb.be. National Bank of Belgium. 21 June 2022. Retrieved 19 December 2022.
^ abc"Air Belgium to launch operations from Brussels South Charleroi Airport in March 2018". Aviation24.be. 21 December 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
^ ab"Air Belgium will start flying from Brussels Airport from October 2017 and unveils travel classes: economy, premium class and business class". Aviation24.be. 31 May 2017.
^"Air Belgium is one step closer to its launch: now hiring cabin and cockpit crew". Aviation24.be. 5 December 2016.
^"Two investment companies have taken a 25 percent share in Air Belgium - Aviation24.be". 28 October 2017.
^"Air Belgium selects Brussels South Charleroi Airport". Aviation24.be. 31 January 2018. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
^"Air Belgium secures AOC, preps for launch". ch-aviation.com. 14 March 2018. Retrieved 14 March 2018.
^dhnet.be - On connaît la date du vol inaugural de la compagnie Air Belgium (French) 2 April 2018
^aviation24.be - Air Belgium reschedules first flight from Brussels South Charleroi to Hong Kong to 3 June 2018 25 April 2018
^ abBelga (21 September 2018). "Air Belgium suspend pour l'hiver sa liaison vers Hong Kong" (in French). RTBF.
^"Media Statement Air Belgium (English)". AirBelgium.com. 21 September 2018.
^ ab. Air Belgium (Press release). 14 March 2019. Archived from the original on 19 September 2019. Retrieved 14 March 2019.
^ abc"Air Belgium launches flights from Brussels South Charleroi to French Antilles, mulls more destinations". www.aviation24.be. 16 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
^"UPDATE: Air Belgium to launch full-cargo flights with four Airbus A330-200F planes based at Liège Airport". Aviation24.be. 30 January 2021. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
^"CMA CGM Air Cargo Fleet Details and History". Planespotters.net. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
^"Air Belgium modernises its fleet, inducts 2 new A330-900; will fly from Brussels to Mauritius". AVIATION A2Z. 3 July 2021. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
^aviation24.be - By the end of this year, Air Belgium needs at least €10 million to recapitalise 8 November 2022
^rci.fm - Air Belgium réduit la voilure vers la Caraïbe (French) 9 November 2022
^"Flight Schedule". Air Belgium. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
^ abLiu, Jim (16 October 2020). "Air Belgium revises NW20 operations as of 16OCT20". Routesonline. Informa Markets. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
^ ab"Air Belgium launches new route from Brussels to Mauritius". anna.aero. 1 November 2021. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
^ abOrban, André (25 April 2018). "Air Belgium reschedules first flight from Brussels South Charleroi to Hong Kong to 3 June 2018". Aviation24.be. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
^ abcrci.fm - Air Belgium réduit la voilure vers la Caraïbe (French) 9 November 2022
^Deen, Tanya (15 March 2022). "Air Belgium to Fly to Bonaire Starting November 2022". InfoBonaire. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
^"Air Belgium starts regular flights between Belgium and Martinique to Curaçao". Air Belgium (Press release). Curaçao Chronicle. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
^@AirBelgiumFans (24 September 2021). "@Airbelgium to start flights to Punta Cana from Brussels and moves Curaçao from Charleroi to Brussels !" (Tweet). Retrieved 27 September 2021 – via Twitter.
^McWhirter, Alex (22 September 2018). "Air Belgium to suspend Brussels-Hong Kong". Business Traveller. Panacea Media Limited. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
^Nowack, Timo (14 March 2019). "Air Belgium sagt den Neustart ab" [Air Belgium cancels the restart]. aeroTELEGRAPH (in German).
^ ab"Air Belgium To Begin Flights To Johannesburg And Cape Town From September". Aviation Ghana. Retrieved 14 March 2022.
belgium, 2016, this, article, about, airline, established, 2016, airline, between, 1979, 2000, belgium, 1979, 2000, belgium, belgian, scheduled, charter, airline, headquartered, mont, saint, guibert, based, brussels, airport, belgium, iata, icao, callsignkf, b. This article is about the airline established in 2016 For the airline between 1979 and 2000 see Air Belgium 1979 2000 Air Belgium S A is a Belgian scheduled and charter airline headquartered in Mont Saint Guibert and based at Brussels Airport 4 Air Belgium S A IATA ICAO CallsignKF ABB AIR BELGIUMFounded27 May 2016 6 years ago 2016 05 27 Commenced operations3 June 2018 4 years ago 2018 06 03 HubsBrussels AirportSecondary hubsLiege Airport cargo Brussels South Charleroi AirportFleet size9Destinations9HeadquartersMont Saint Guibert Belgium 1 Key peopleNiky Terzakis CEO 2 Revenue 140 547 477 2021 3 Profit 11 988 500 2021 3 Employees345 2021 3 Websiteairbelgium com Contents 1 History 1 1 Foundation and early years 1 2 Developments since 2020 2 Destinations 3 Fleet 3 1 Current fleet 3 2 Former fleet 4 See also 5 References 6 External linksHistory EditFoundation and early years Edit In the summer of 2016 the company was started with CEO Niky Terzakis who worked previously for ASL Airlines Belgium formerly TNT Airways 5 6 7 The intention was to link Belgium to destinations in Hong Kong Beijing Shanghai Xi an Wuhan Zhengzhou and Taiyuan from its base at Brussels South Charleroi Airport 4 The first flight from Brussels to Hong Kong was planned to take off in October 2017 5 however this was postponed as the airline lacked an air operator s certificate AOC 8 In December 2017 Air Belgium announced that the first flight should now take place in March 2018 from Brussels South Charleroi Airport instead of Brussels Airport due to lower airport taxes and easy accessibility it was also announced that for business class and premium passengers the airline would operate from a new dedicated terminal which would be built at the executive terminal while economy passengers would use the regular terminal 4 9 On 14 March 2018 it was announced that the airline had received its AOC from the Belgian civil aviation authority and planned to begin operating scheduled flights from mid April 10 On 29 March 2018 the airline flew its first revenue service by operating its Airbus A340 300 in Air Belgium livery on behalf of Surinam Airways from Amsterdam to Paramaribo 11 On 25 April 2018 the airline announced a delay to its own inaugural flight to Hong Kong from 30 April to 3 June 2018 due to not having the rights to operate in Russian airspace 12 Since the commencement of the service for the first destination it started operating a scheduled service between Charleroi and Hong Kong Moreover the other aircraft of the fleet was provided to Air France for a daily service between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Libreville during the 2018 summer season On 21 September 2018 the airline announced that scheduled operations between Charleroi and Hong Kong would be suspended during winter 13 14 and the airline would instead focus on charter operations The route should have restarted at the end of March 2019 13 but two weeks before the planned date Air Belgium instead announced that they would be terminating the route and working towards starting new services to mainland China in mid 2019 and the Americas in late 2019 or early 2020 15 On 16 July 2019 the airline announced plans for flights to Fort de France and Pointe a Pitre by December 2019 with further plans to fly to Kinshasa and Miami 16 Developments since 2020 Edit On 30 January 2021 Air Belgium announced that cargo flights would start with four Airbus A330 200F based in Liege Airport on behalf of French shipping company CMA CGM which purchased the airframes and contracted with Air Belgium to fly them 17 These four planes are progressively re immatriculated in France during the 2022 2023 winter 18 On 1 July 2021 Air Belgium announced it would add two Airbus A330 900s to its fleet and operate services between Brussels Airport and Mauritius from 15 October 2021 19 In November 2022 Air Belgium announced the need of a recapitalisation to avoid bankruptcy after accumulating severe losses 20 The airline already received 19 million during the same year from its Chinese minority owners which have been already used up as the airline s primary charter business did not fully recover in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic 2 The airline subsequently also announced it would cut and suspend several passenger routes 21 2 In January 2023 Air Belgium announced that sufficient funding has been secured from private investors to keep operations running while there was no further financial support from the state 22 Destinations EditAs of September 2022 update Air Belgium operates or has previously operated scheduled passenger flights to the following destinations 23 Country Territory City Airport Start date End date Notes RefsBelgium Brussels Brussels Airport 15 October 2021 Present Hub 24 25 Charleroi Brussels South Charleroi Airport 3 June 2018 Present Secondary Hub 26 Bonaire Kralendijk Bonaire International Airport 4 November 2022 Present suspended 27 28 Curacao Willemstad Curacao International Airport 3 July 2021 Present suspended 27 29 Dominican Republic Punta Cana Punta Cana International Airport 15 December 2021 Present suspended 27 30 Guadeloupe Pointe a Pitre Pointe a Pitre International Airport 6 December 2019 Present 16 Hong Kong Hong Kong Hong Kong International Airport 3 June 2018 1 October 2018 Terminated 26 31 32 15 Martinique Fort de France Martinique Aime Cesaire International Airport 6 December 2019 Present 16 Mauritius Port Louis Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport 15 October 2021 Present 24 25 South Africa Cape Town Cape Town International Airport 14 September 2022 Present 33 Johannesburg O R Tambo International Airport 14 September 2022 Present 33 Fleet Edit An Air Belgium Airbus A330 200F operated for CMA CGM Air Cargo A former Air Belgium Airbus A340 300 which was the airline s first type and has been retired in 2022 Current fleet Edit As of December 2022 update Air Belgium operates the following aircraft 34 35 36 Air Belgium fleet Aircraft In service Orders Passengers NotesB P E TotalAirbus A330 200 2 37 22 240 262Airbus A330 900 2 30 21 235 286Air Belgium Cargo fleetAirbus A330 200F 1 Cargo operated for CMA CGM Air CargoAirbus A330 200 P2F 1 Cargo operated for Hongyuan GroupBoeing 747 8F 2 Cargo operated for Hongyuan GroupTotal 8 Former fleet Edit The airline previously operated the following aircraft Air Belgium retired fleet Aircraft Total Introduced Retired NotesAirbus A340 300 4 2018 2022 38 Replaced by Airbus A330 900See also EditList of airlines of BelgiumReferences Edit Contact Us Air Belgium airbelgium com a b c brusselstimes com Charter airline Air Belgium needs 10 million to stay afloat 10 November 2022 a b c Air Belgium Central Balance Sheet Office nbb be National Bank of Belgium 21 June 2022 Retrieved 19 December 2022 a b c Air Belgium to launch operations from Brussels South Charleroi Airport in March 2018 Aviation24 be 21 December 2017 Retrieved 15 January 2018 a b Air Belgium will start flying from Brussels Airport from October 2017 and unveils travel classes economy premium class and business class Aviation24 be 31 May 2017 Air Belgium is one step closer to its launch now hiring cabin and cockpit crew Aviation24 be 5 December 2016 Air Belgium Airliner World October 2016 7 Two investment companies have taken a 25 percent share in Air Belgium Aviation24 be 28 October 2017 Air Belgium selects Brussels South Charleroi Airport Aviation24 be 31 January 2018 Retrieved 14 March 2018 Air Belgium secures AOC preps for launch ch aviation com 14 March 2018 Retrieved 14 March 2018 dhnet be On connait la date du vol inaugural de la compagnie Air Belgium French 2 April 2018 aviation24 be Air Belgium reschedules first flight from Brussels South Charleroi to Hong Kong to 3 June 2018 25 April 2018 a b Belga 21 September 2018 Air Belgium suspend pour l hiver sa liaison vers Hong Kong in French RTBF Media Statement Air Belgium English AirBelgium com 21 September 2018 a b Air Belgium renounces to resume its Hong Kong service but remains committed to its development plans Air Belgium Press release 14 March 2019 Archived from the original on 19 September 2019 Retrieved 14 March 2019 a b c Air Belgium launches flights from Brussels South Charleroi to French Antilles mulls more destinations www aviation24 be 16 July 2019 Retrieved 16 July 2019 UPDATE Air Belgium to launch full cargo flights with four Airbus A330 200F planes based at Liege Airport Aviation24 be 30 January 2021 Retrieved 11 February 2021 CMA CGM Air Cargo Fleet Details and History Planespotters net Retrieved 24 January 2023 Air Belgium modernises its fleet inducts 2 new A330 900 will fly from Brussels to Mauritius AVIATION A2Z 3 July 2021 Retrieved 3 July 2021 aviation24 be By the end of this year Air Belgium needs at least 10 million to recapitalise 8 November 2022 rci fm Air Belgium reduit la voilure vers la Caraibe French 9 November 2022 aerotelegraph com German 3 January 2023 Flight Schedule Air Belgium Retrieved 1 November 2022 a b Liu Jim 16 October 2020 Air Belgium revises NW20 operations as of 16OCT20 Routesonline Informa Markets Retrieved 16 October 2020 a b Air Belgium launches new route from Brussels to Mauritius anna aero 1 November 2021 Retrieved 1 November 2022 a b Orban Andre 25 April 2018 Air Belgium reschedules first flight from Brussels South Charleroi to Hong Kong to 3 June 2018 Aviation24 be Retrieved 1 November 2022 a b c rci fm Air Belgium reduit la voilure vers la Caraibe French 9 November 2022 Deen Tanya 15 March 2022 Air Belgium to Fly to Bonaire Starting November 2022 InfoBonaire Retrieved 1 November 2022 Air Belgium starts regular flights between Belgium and Martinique to Curacao Air Belgium Press release Curacao Chronicle Retrieved 7 July 2021 AirBelgiumFans 24 September 2021 Airbelgium to start flights to Punta Cana from Brussels and moves Curacao from Charleroi to Brussels Tweet Retrieved 27 September 2021 via Twitter McWhirter Alex 22 September 2018 Air Belgium to suspend Brussels Hong Kong Business Traveller Panacea Media Limited Retrieved 1 November 2022 Nowack Timo 14 March 2019 Air Belgium sagt den Neustart ab Air Belgium cancels the restart aeroTELEGRAPH in German a b Air Belgium To Begin Flights To Johannesburg And Cape Town From September Aviation Ghana Retrieved 14 March 2022 Seat Map On Board Global Airline Guide 2019 Part One Airliner World 5 October 2019 Air Belgium Fleet Details and History Planespotters net Retrieved 1 December 2021 Air Belgium takes first A330 200 Ch Aviation 10 October 2022 aerotelegraph com German 29 March 2022External links Edit Media related to Air Belgium at Wikimedia Commons Official websitePortals Belgium Aviation Companies Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Air Belgium 2016 amp oldid 1142967026, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
