BRU 05/09/2014

[b720]

These negative views!!! The final winner is the Belgian traveler. We have more options. SN flies nowhere from BRU except to a handful AFRI destinations and JFK. EK is very welcome, now we can fly direct to DXB
and beyond!!! Excellent airline, and excellent service and DXB is an excellent airport to connect at.. Why all the nagging? If our airline is not expanding why should we stop others from doing so?

[chineseboy]

These negative views!!! The final winner is the Belgian traveler. We have more options. SN flies nowhere from BRU except to a handful AFRI destinations and JFK. EK is very welcome, now we can fly direct to DXB
and beyond!!! Excellent airline, and excellent service and DXB is an excellent airport to connect at.. Why all the nagging? If our airline is not expanding why should we stop others from doing so?

totally agree, prices to the far East has never been so cheap ! 453€ to BKK next month with EY... never paid this low with an airline from BRU to BKK let the competitions begins! even the Dutch travellers are descending to start their journeys from BRU, it is sometimes cheaper from here than from AMS.

and all the destinations are even closer now! without transferring with a few hours drive to AMS, DUS, CDG

[sn26567]

You have to realise that those cheap prices are possible only to unfair competition, since neither the Middle East airlines nor their employees pay any income taxes.

And there are some funny things also in the prices quoted by these airlines. This morning in my mailbox I found an ad from Etihad with the following prices for return travel from Brussels:

Abu Dhabi: 510 €
Muscat (via Abu Dhabi): 445 € (hence, if you fly to Abu Dhabi, take a ticket to Muscat and don't fly the last leg of your trip!)
Bangkok (via Abu Dhabi): 474 € (you get the Abu Dhabi-Bangkok leg - which is not the shortest one - for free!)
Jakarta (via Abu Dhabi): 500 € (same remark)
Colombo (via Abu Dhabi): 485 € (again)
Shanghai (via Abu Dhabi): 431 € (how can it be so cheap?)
Johannesburg (via Abu Dhabi): 530 € (same remark)

[ihd-fc]

Hello

Just for your info: If you don't use the second leg of your ticket, you will not be able to return on the same ticket, as the return flight will be automatically cancelled. You always have to use all coupons of your ticket.

rgds

[sn26567]

OK, I know, but the trick is to stay in Abu Dhabi and make a very short return trip to Muscat during your stay in Abu Dhabi. In addition, Muscat is a nice city to visit on a day trip...

[Atlantis]

Hi,

mmm... big welcome from everyone here,...
those gulfies aren't fighting economics with honest weapons ...
Preferred to see them leave BRU soon..
Prefer to see ANA,Singapore,JAL... here..
Guess the arrival of Emirates will soon be followed by a byebye from Thai and Jet and a far far away introduction of any other ...
Even AFI will be a bigger fight now for SN, at least the low yields will go to EK...
Pity...

CXB

What if EK would start BRU-JFK,FIH like they did in Milan to Alitalia...
Great welcome, not even a smile !

Feeling exactly the same way. This is not very good news for Belgian aviation. Maybe even not for Brussels Airport.

A very typical Belgian attitude: being scared.

How can you do predictions after 4 completed flights of Emirates.

Every body knows that Dubai will be kind of a "center" to bring in pax and to transport them to all parts in the world.

Etihad and Qatar are now flying already some years to BRU. It's a great add to the portfolio of BRU and very welcome for pax also.

IF other airlines or the airport itself should be scared of Emirates, then it is up to them to offer a nice alternative.

But let's wait and see about it.

The best example we had a couple of months ago. Every body was so scared when Ryanair announced to fly ex-BRU. SN and many other carriers would lose a lot of pax.
And see.....what do we see in practice??? SN is transporting more pax, Vueling is also doing very well and Ryanair brought a lot new or other pax to BRU.

So, one good advice. Be patience and wait and see instead of being scared. It's a big opportunity what we see here.

[airtrainer]

That's not really a surprise, if you fly any airline to its hub/base most of the time it will be more expensive than taking the same flight and connect to another destination. That's where AvGeeks say "why fly direct when you can connect"

That said I join the comments posted above, it's good for the customer and as long as no other airline stop flying to/from BRU I say Welcome ! I will now definitely look at BRU for a next Asia trip...

[b720]

indeed, prices differ depending on the market targeted. SN offers very cheap tickets from parts of Europe to Africa in order to compete with AF, for instance..
LX BRU-ZRH-JFK could;d be (sometimes) half the price of a ZRH-JFK flight..etc etc..
No income tax is one extreme, the other is the tax (theft) in places like BE. Making it impossible for a business to make money and expand. Most large companies in BE
have offices and branches abroad, they funnel profits to those countries were taxes are more reasonable and concentrating losses here! Hence the minimal amounts they end up paying in taxes here, only the employees are taxed i n full.. Those in manufacturing end up moving the process to cheaper countries, instead of expanding here.. Even Cote D'or is producing the mignonettes in poland!
Poor SN can't move their operations, hence the losses year after year after year.. Instead of criticising Emirates, Singapore, and Cathay..we should look at how the governments in those countries support business and growth. We can learn a lot from them.