Brussels Airlines Outlines African Market Expansion

Belgian flag carrier Brussels Airlines is to increase its flights into Africa from its Brussels International Airport base and upgrade its in-flight product from April 2012 following the arrival of an additional A330 into its fleet. The Star Alliance member has confirmed it will increase frequencies in six markets, with five seeing significant increases in capacity.

The Belgian market has long historic links with Africa which date back long before the formation of Brussels Airlines, but the carrier has built much of its network around its strong presence in the continent. It carried around 616,000 O&D passengers between Africa and Europe last year, a figure that was boosted by the launch of new connections to Bamako, Mali and Marrakech, Morocco during the current calendar year.

In West Africa there will be more capacity on offer into Cameroon and the Ivory Coast. An additional eight weekly frequencies will be provided to Cameroon with flights to the capital Yaoundé increasing from two to six a week, while Douala, the important harbour and economic hub of the country, will be linked to Brussels daily rather than three times weekly. According to Brussels Airlines, the Ivory Coast is witnessing a “strong economic revival” as the government has announced several measures to stimulate business and trade. Accordingly, the carrier will increase its three times weekly Abidjan service to a daily frequency (this route was served six times weekly in S10).

In Central and East Africa, growth will occur in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Kenya. A third weekly frequency will be added to the Burundi capital Bujumbura, while links to Kinshasa in the DRC will be grown to six a week. The Kenyan capital Nairobi will also receive an additional weekly rotation increasing services on the route from Brussels to four a week.

Brussels Airlines has confirmed there will be market cuts as part of its revised network strategy and changes to aircraft routings. It will suspend its own operated flights to Accra (currently served three times weekly) in favour of a codeshare with its Star Alliance partner, and owner, Lufthansa, via Frankfurt, while Dakar, Senegal will be served four times weekly, down from six flights in S11.