Like Air France, Brussels Airlines must modify the routes of its connections serving Africa Following the closure of Niger’s airspace.
To date, the Belgian airline maintains the 17 services of its African network, but the flights to 12 services have been modified and extended to avoid Niger. On the outward and return journeys, these impacted flights could take between 1 and 3.5 hours more to reach their destination. Additionally, they might also have to make a stopover for refueling. Only flights on the Brussels routes to Freetown, Monrovia, Conakry, Dakar and Banjul are operated normally.
“This may mean that we have to go with a double crew, because the pilots are not allowed to fly more than nine hours apart.“, while Brussels Airlines is already running at full speed in the middle of the summer, explained to The Echo a spokesperson. All these additional costs cannot be immediately passed on to passengers who have already booked their tickets. It is therefore a blow for the Belgian airline, whose long-haul African network represents its most profitable activity.
AirBelgium which flies to South Africa in particular should also be impacted by the closure of Nigerien airspace. She has “already reviewed its flight plans for the routes operated this week and the weeks to come in order to have the minimum impact on passengers“.
