Brussels Airlines (SN, Brussels National) may seek to lay off as much as 190 staff members mostly in its administration following the increasing operational integration with Eurowings (EW, Düsseldorf) within the Lufthansa Group, De Tijd has reported.
It is recalled that, as announced in February, Brussels Airlines will gradually take over the operational responsibility for all long-haul flights for the Cologne/Bonn-based low-cost carrier, although SunExpress Deutschland (Frankfurt International) will continue to operate seven A330-200s for Eurowings. Short-haul flights of both units will continue to be operated independently for the time being.
According to the ch-aviation capacity module, the Belgian carrier currently operates two A340-300s and one A330-300 for Eurowings, deploying the aircraft on long-haul routes out of Düsseldorf mostly to leisure destinations, as well as to New York JFK.
The integration would, in sum, lead to job cuts of some 250 staff members. Initially, it was expected that the redundancies would be equally split between the carriers. However, it now seems that Brussels Airlines will bear the brunt of the restructuring according to De Tijd.
The Belgian flag carrier, which was fully taken over by the Lufthansa Group at the end of 2016, is involved in a protracted labour dispute with its unions and will most likely seek individual terminations rather than group redundancies which would require union consent.
In total, Brussels Airlines currently employs some 3,500 staff members.
