Dutch regional airline Schreiner Airways is re-organising its franchise agreement with Sabena as it moves to expand its feeder operations under the new Sabena Connect brand.
Schreiner operates four 50-seat Bombardier Dash 8-300s for Sabena on wet-lease and franchise services, but plans to add more aircraft and routes from September. "Two ex-Air Nostrum ATR 72-200s will be delivered in August on lease from AGES, which will begin operating new Sabena franchise services in September," says Schreiner regional services manager Arian Van der Werss.
Sabena's executive vice-president, commercial, Hugh Fraser says the airline will expand Schreiner's feeder services under a more formal Sabena Connect brand. "These will provide a third level of turboprop services from Brussels, below Sabena's own A320 operations and the BAe Avro RJs flown by subsidiary Delta Air Transport [DAT]," he says.
"We are re-arranging our franchise relationship into more of a partnership. Until now, we have operated the routes that Sabena has told us to, but we want to be more involved and do our own analysis," says Van der Werss. Additional franchise destinations are being evaluated in France and Germany, he adds.
The two 64-seat ATRs will be operated from Brussels to Luxembourg and Paris Orly, the former a Dash 8 route while the latter is operated by DAT. "The Dash 8 will be transferred to a new Brussels-Bremen service," says Van der Werss.
In parallel with the ATR lease, Schreiner is studying longer term fleet options, with new turboprops and regional jets being evaluated as potential Dash 8 replacements, with the 70-seat Dash 8 Q400 being a possible long term option.
Source: Flight International
