Newly-created Brussels Airlines has begun looking at joining one of the major global alliances.
The Belgian carrier is not affiliated with any alliance but codeshares with carriers from all three major groups. "We want to assess the opportunities to join an alliance. We see more traffic going through alliances," says chief executive Philippe Vander Putten.
Brussels Airlines was created in March from the merger of SN Brussels and Virgin Express. Vander Putten says forward booking figures indicate the new carrier is managing to retain passengers from the two former operations and says this is encouraging given the different models the two carriers operated. The merger has seen the short-haul product overhauled and the scrapping of business class in recognition of falling traffic in this sector.
Source: Airline Business
