BRUSSELS AIRLINES RECORDS 16.6% PASSENGER GROWTH IN AUGUST

In August, Brussels Airlines had 137,282 more passengers than in August of the previous year. This is an increase of 16.6%. The Seat Load Factor went up by 1.5 percentage points, making it 86.5% in total. But there is still a lot of pressure on the ticket price. You can make alteration by online in the section of Brussels airlines manage booking.

In August, Brussels Airlines had 962,439 passengers on board its flights, which is 16.6% more than in August 2017. The number of passengers on the African network grew by 31.4%. This is because Thomas Cook, Neckermann, and Pegase worked together to add many new vacation spots in North Africa. The number of people taking flights in Europe went up by 15.3%. On flights to and from Asia, 11.4% more people chose Brussels Airlines. The number of people going to Tel Aviv in the Middle East went up by 9.4%. In the same month as last year, 8.7% more people signed up for the North American network.

Brussels Airlines ran 6.9% more flights, but the number of Available Seat-Kilometers (ASK) went up even more, by 19.9%. This is because AVRO jets with 100 seats were replaced by bigger Airbus planes with 180 seats, and the average flight distance went up by 5% because several vacation spots in North Africa were added. The Seat Load Factor went from 85% in August 2017 to 86.5% in August 2018 (+1.5pp. Because it had more to offer, Brussels Airlines was able to keep its prices low and bring in even more customers. This, however, means that there is still a lot of pressure on the yield.

Due to the growing number of flights, the Cargo Load Factor went down by 4.5 percentage points, to an average of 61.5%. The total amount of cargo moved was 3,690 tonnes. Revenue Ton Kilograms (RTK) went up by 19.3%.

These numbers don't include the people on the many charter flights that Brussels Airlines runs for tour operators.

Brussels Airlines' current VP Sales Africa Philippe Saeys-Desmedt is now Lufthansa Group's Senior Director Sales for Sub-Saharan Africa. As of November 1, 2018, he and his team will be in charge of all sales and business activities for the Lufthansa Group in 24 markets in sub-Saharan Africa. This appointment comes after the sales activities of Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Edelweiss, Eurowings, Lufthansa, and SWISS were recently merged into one sales force in Africa, and the regional sales office for Sub-Saharan Africa was moved from Lagos, Nigeria, to Brussels, Belgium, where Brussels Airlines is based.

Philippe Saeys-Desmedt, who is 57 years old, has managed airlines for a long time and knows a lot about different African markets. In 1986, the Belgian started working at Sabena as a Cargo Operations agent. After just one year, he moved to their sales department to represent the airline to European institutions. As he started to learn more about Africa, he was named General Manager for Uganda in 1990. He then went on to build up Sabena's and Swissair's sales in Germany, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea. Because Brussels Airlines and Lufthansa Cargo work together so well, our customers can take advantage of a lot of new connections and destinations. We are very happy that our worldwide network is getting even bigger and stronger in this way.

As the General Manager for Eastern Africa, Senegal, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the new airline that took over, Brussels Airlines, he was in charge of sales and ground operations. He also worked as a trade representative for the Belgian government in a number of African countries. Philippe Saeys-Desmedt has been Vice President Sales Africa for Brussels Airlines since 2013. He is in charge of 350 people who work there.