Airlines Brussels Airlines announces new management

Since Lufthansa has fully acquired Brussels Airlines in 2016, the Belgium carrier is discussing the strategic roadmap and the future of the airline. Shortly after the acquisition, Lufthansa has revealed plans to integrate Brussels Airlines into its European low cost subsidiary Eurowings. The management of the Belgium airline has tried to prevent the integration into the low cost carrier.

Now, Brussels Airlines has announced a change in the top management: CEO Bernard Gustin and CFO Jan de Raeymaeker will leave the company by end March. Christina Foerster will become the new CEO of Brussels Airlines. Christina Foerster is no stranger to Belgium and Brussels Airlines. She has been the airline’s Chief Commercial Officer for one and a half years and has been living in the Belgian capital since then. She has held various positions in the aviation industry prior to joining Brussels Airlines, among them General Manager Product Management Intercontinental, Vice President Network and Fleet Development and Senior Vice President Network, Group & Alliance Development at the Lufthansa Group. Christina Foerster will become the first-ever female CEO in one of the Lufthansa Group airline.

I a press statement, Brussels Airlines announced that it will remain a Belgian entity and that it even plans to grow. The carrier will work closer together with Eurowings. In a first step, Brussels Airlines will provide two Airbus A340-300 and one A330-300 for the new Eurowings long-haul base in Dusseldorf. Furthermore, Lufthansa and Eurowings plan to expand operations on the African market, where Brussels Airlines has a traditional high know-how and market presence.

As the CEO of Eurowings, Thorsten Dirks said that Brussels Airlines is a crucial cornerstone of the Eurowings Group: “With Brussels Airlines, we can count on a unique know-how of the African market and a long-standing expertise with long-haul operations. Right now our colleagues from Brussels Airlines are leading the process of successfully establishing long-haul operations at Dusseldorf, one of our most important platforms in Germany.”

Due to its low operational costs, Brussels Airline is an interesting platform for Eurowings. Lufthansa has launched its new Eurowings low cost carrier concept in 2014. Since then, Eurowings is one of the fastest growing airline platforms in Europe. The carrier’s growth is based on a wet-leasing concept, several airlines, like SunExpress for all long-haul aircraft, PrivatAir or LGW are operating flights on behalf of the carrier.