Brussels Airlines aims for growth in Africa, the most important market. After reducing its intercontinental fleet from 10 to 8 aircraft as part of its turnaround program in 2020, Brussels Airlines now sees an opportunity to once again expand its intercontinental offer. From June 2022, a 9e A330 to become operational in the Brussels Airlines fleet. With the additional capacity, the Lufthansa Group's Africa expert will reopen the West African stations of Conakry and Ouagadougou and add frequencies on its routes from Brussels Airport to Freetown, Monrovia, Banjul and Lomé.

As part of the network adjustment during the airline's Reboot Plus turnaround plan after the COVID-19 crisis, Brussels Airlines stopped its flights to Conakry (Guinea) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) in 2020. The first objective of the turnaround plan was to structurally reduce the company's cost structure to a competitive level, to create a sustainable future for Brussels Airlines. The airline is now seeing increasing demand in the market, providing the opportunity to once again expand its presence in West Africa.

“We've always said we'd go for growth as soon as market conditions allowed. As we see strong demand in the West African market, we want to take the opportunity to grow and invest in expanding our African network. The assignment of this aircraft to Brussels Airlines is a clear sign of Lufthansa's confidence in Brussels Airlines and reaffirms our position as an Africa expert within the Lufthansa Group.”

“We are delighted to welcome Conakry and Ouagadougou again to the Brussels Airlines network. With the additional A330 aircraft, we will operate three weekly flights to Conakry and Ouagadougou and add additional frequencies to Freetown, Monrovia, Banjul and Lomé.”

Additional employment

The additional intercontinental aircraft will also create new jobs in the company. Brussels Airlines will hire 50 cabin crew members to join the company in the coming months. As promised during the restructuring, the Belgian employer will first offer the vacancies to former cabin crew members who did not see their temporary contract extended last year due to the corona crisis. For the Brussels Airlines pilot community, this offers prospects for medium-haul pilots to move into the long-haul sector, according to Brussels Airlines.

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Fleet Brussels Airlines.
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