Brussels Airlines (SN, Brussels National) has cancelled 675 flights, representing 6% of its flight schedule, in July and August to lighten the workload on its employees and avoid further strikes.
In a statement, the Lufthansa subsidiary said it would operate 372 fewer flights (6.7% less) in July and 303 fewer flights (5.6% less) in August. The reduction in July includes the cancellation of 148 flights already announced in early June. More cancellations would be commercially unviable. In addition, the airline is “fine-tuning” a flight planning system introduced last autumn. It had also recruited 225 additional cabin crew and adapted flight duties.
It said the aim of these short-term measures was a better work-life balance for its overworked pilots and cabin crews, who went on strike over three days between June 23 and June 25, 2022, impacting 533 flights (including charters) and almost 70,000 passengers. The airline managed to retain 40% of its flight schedule during the strike but had to cancel 315 flights, including 38 long-haul ones. It also consolidated some of its services by operating three long-haul A330s to cover the need for four flights to Nice (France) and six flights to Rome Fiumicino (Italy).
The airline and trade unions will meet again on August 23 to discuss long-term measures to relieve the workload during the 2023 summer season. Working groups are to be established to balance flight schedules with duty hours. Through this, the airline hoped to avoid further industrial action.
The aviation sector - particular in Europe – has faced a turbulent summer marked by capacity caps at major airports such as Amsterdam Schiphol to deal with insufficient staffing that resulted in long security queues and flight delays.
“As we were loss-making in 2020, in 2021, and still as well in 1Q2022, our financial situation does not allow us to reverse or reopen the current collective labour agreements (CLAs), which were signed as part of our agreement with the Belgian government by all our social partners in 2020 to guarantee a future for our company,” the airline explained.
“After our turnaround programme ‘Reboot Plus’ and two years of fighting the worst crisis in our history, we are now scrambling to keep up with the fast recovery of our industry. Recovery, in the sense that demand is coming back at an unseen speed for the summer, but not a recovery of the heavy losses we have suffered. In aviation, it is imperative that we take the opportunity of the summer months to make a profit. Furthermore, we are battling significantly increased costs, mainly but not only due to the fuel price,” the airline said.
