Air Belgium is expecting to exit a judicial restructuring process in September, and is claiming to have achieved profitability over the first four months of this year.
The carrier axed its scheduled passenger operations in October last year – describing them as “chronically unprofitable” – and opted for restructuring to re-organise its debts.
Abandoning the scheduled services meant its full-year turnover for 2023 fell by 40% to €134.4 million ($145.8 million).
But the carrier managed to cut losses by 38% to €27.5 million, and it states that it is “once again profitable” for the January-April period this year.
Air Belgium has focused more on wet-lease and charter operations, which accounted for 75% of its 2023 turnover.
It points out that its performance last year was adversely affected by the unavailability of one of its two Airbus A330-900s following a technical incident in August.
Air Belgium has chosen to withdraw both A330-900s this year – one of them (OO-ABG) in March and the other (OO-ABF) to follow in October – as well as two passenger A330-200s in June and September.
It says it is holding discussions with lessors to replace the fleet with other A330-200s or -300s.
The carrier set aside provisions of nearly €7.5 million for costs linked to the exit of the four passenger jets.
It admits that, despite ending the loss-making scheduled activity and re-organising under protection, its cash-flow “remains under pressure”, and it is talking with “several potential investors”.
Air Belgium attributes this financial strain to “difficulty” in maintaining the size of its passenger aircraft fleet, as well as “repetitive payment delays” from one of its clients – in addition to broader issues such as fuel prices and geopolitical complications.
