Air Belgium ends scheduled Charleroi flight operations

Court approves judicial restructuring of Air Belgium

Nivelles Commercial Court, south of Brussels, has approved the request of Air Belgium (KF, Brussels Charleroi) to initiate judicial restructuring, the newspapers La Libre Belgique and L'Echo reported on the evening of September 25. The airline, headquartered in nearby Mont-Saint-Guibert, now has four months, until January 22, to submit its new business plan.

“For now, our activities are protected and your jobs are preserved,” Niky Terzakis, Air Belgium’s chief executive and accountable manager, declared in a message addressed to the approximately 500 employees.

Last week, the carrier announced it would end its “chronically unprofitable” passenger flights from October 3, affecting around 11,000 passengers, and seek protection from creditors through court-led restructuring (Procédure de Réorganisation Judiciaire - PRJ). It intends instead to focus exclusively on cargo and ACMI operations.

Air Belgium sustained a loss of more than EUR44 million euros (USD46.5 million) in 2022, making cumulative losses since the start of operations in 2016 around EUR91.6 million (USD97 million) and giving the company negative equity by the end of last year of EUR41 million (USD43.4...

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Air Belgium seeks creditor protection; axes passenger ops

Air Belgium (KF, Brussels Charleroi) has cancelled all of its passenger flights from October 3 with the intention of continuing beyond that date with its cargo and leasing activities only, and is seeking protection from creditors, it announced on September 18.

A series of “external events that have weakened the company in recent years” including the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, soaring fuel prices, inflation, and declining consumer purchasing power, and these “coupled with the current uncertain and challenging environment” have “forced” the board of directors into metamorphosing its business model, it said.

It will now focus “exclusively on cargo and ACMI and file for judicial restructuring by way of amicable agreement to ensure its long-term viability and growth.” These two “growth-generating B-to-B activities” for passenger and cargo flights are more profitable than continuing its own “chronically unprofitable” passenger business.

Air Belgium lamented that it was “deeply sorry to announce the discontinuation of its passenger business at such short notice. All options for maintaining this activity or continuing flights after October 3 were examined...

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