Air Belgium secures AOC, preps for launch

Air Belgium (KF, Brussels Charleroi) has announced via its social media accounts that it had been issued the Operating Permit by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). This will allow the carrier to launch its maiden services to the country.

The Belgian carrier plans to initially connect its base at Brussels Charleroi with Zhengzhou in Henan province.

Once launched, the flights would become Zhengzhou's maiden passenger European service. The airport already sees substantial cargo traffic to Europe, with Suparna Airlines, Air China Cargo, Cargolux, and Cargolux Italia all offering scheduled dedicated freighter flights between the city and destinations in Europe.

So far, Air Belgium's only scheduled route was its Charleroi-Hong Kong Int'l service. The flights were terminated at the end of September. Air Belgium blamed its Chinese partner, a tour operator Utour, for not fulfilling its obligations at that time. Since then, the carrier has focussed on ACMI operations with its four A340-300s, of which only two units are currently active.

It is unclear...

Air Belgium (KF, Brussels Charleroi) signed a strategic agreement with China's Henan Civil Aviation Development and Investment Co. (HNCA) on October 17 as it eyes to recover from the termination of its only scheduled route to Hong Kong Int'l at the end of September.

CEO Niky Terzakis posted photos of the signing ceremony on his personal Twitter account, without disclosing any details as to the content of the agreement.

Public TV station RTBF quoted the spokesperson as saying that a press release with the details of the agreement would be published shortly.

The carrier also dismissed rumours that it was facing bankruptcy. The termination of the contract with Chinese tour operator UTour for the Brussels Charleroi-Hong Kong flights nonetheless affected Air Belgium's situation. According to the airline, the tour operator failed to provide the agreed number of passengers and demanded too low prices.

Air Belgium held a shareholders' meeting on October 18 to address the problem.

For the time being, the carrier will focus on ACMI operations using its four A340-300...

Air Belgium (KF, Brussels Charleroi) has announced it would suspend its only current scheduled route from Charleroi to Hong Kong Int'l between October 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019. The airline said that its Chinese partner Utour had not fulfilled its obligations regarding both pricing and traffic volume.

"Under these conditions, Air Belgium is unwilling to carry out the winter program as initially planned and to endanger its financial position. In good faith we’ve tried to find a solution for our partner’s defaulting situation to date," the Belgian airline said.

Air Belgium added that it would continue to operate on an ACMI basis for other carriers and that it planned to go ahead with plans to launch non-stop services between Charleroi and secondary destinations in mainland Chin. It specifically mentioned Zhengzhou as one potential destination.

The airline currently operates 2x weekly between Charleroi and Hong Kong. One of its four A340-300s is currently wet-leased to British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) operating a daily Heathrow-Abu Dhabi Int'l service. According...