Brussels Fights Back

Photo: Google.

Can an airport succeed in offering both the fastest check-in in Europe and top-notch security? That’s the goal Brussels Airport and its home carrier, Brussels Airlines, have set, and from which they refuse to back down, even in light of the terror attacks that mauled their bottom lines in April and May.

Brussels Airlines was one of the fastest-growing airlines in Europe in early 2016, with double-digit growth. Then came the March attack, closing its home airport for 13 days. The airline made do, operating out of Belgian regional airports and long-haul services via  Frankfurt and Zurich. Traffic was down in April and May–but it has come back since June, up 4% over last year, says Frederic Dechamps, VP of sales for Benelux, Europe and the Americas.

“People have come back rapidly to Brussels,” Dechamps says, thanks in no small part to the determination by the airline not to cut back and wait passively for time to pass, but to aggressively fight back. 

The first step was to “massively communicate about programs here to the travel trade and to customers,” Dechamps told a group of U.S. travel reporters that included TMR editor Cheryl Rosen, in the airport lounge yesterday. The communication plan relied in large part on cooperation with tourism authorities, travel agents and tour operators. 

The attacks created also awareness about the need to insert customer contact data in reservation files.  

Travel agencies and corporate customers have traditionally declined to share customer data with the airline, and so when the attack came, Brussels Airlines had email addresses for only about a third of its customer base. Coming on the weekend, when many small agencies were closed and communication lines were swamped, the attack served to “make the market sensitive” to the issue. 

“Travel agencies see the benefit because at the end of the day we share responsibility for providing risk-management solutions; everyone benefits if we can get in touch with customers and inform them about operational issues.” Dechamps said. “We don’t use customer data provided by travel agents for commercial reasons; we use them just to get in touch and offer service in case of disruptions.”

Changes inside and out
The airport is crowded on this July morning, and security begins outside, where cars and buses no longer can drop off passengers at the door. There is a security check outside in the street, but inside there are now 24 security stands, and though not all are manned, people zip through in just a few minutes.

The object is to make this the fastest security check in Europe; the target is 45 minutes from parking to the gate. 

For leisure travelers, the airline is working with the local CVBs, Visit Flanders and Visit Brussels, to make sure people understand the positive news, and to build packages based on themes like gastronomy and art, to inspire people to visit. There also have been 15 press trips, especially targeting the United States and Europe. 

“We don’t want to accept that the country is down and just wait until 2017,” says Frederic.

Indeed, Brussels Airlines, part of the Lufthansa Group and the Star Alliance, continued its expansion plan and opened in Toronto in May, with service five times a week in summer and four in winter. Its next goal is to take “a leadership role within the Star Alliance” as the carrier to Africa. “Everything we do is a link to Africa—the U.S. and Canada reinforce our business strategy there.”

“It’s the ideal connecting airport to anywhere, the closest Star Alliance hub to the U.S., with good connections to Europe,” Frederic  noted. 

In the airport, meanwhile, a new lounge, The Loft, has been created in partnership with Microsoft. Twice the size of the previous lounge, it comes complete with a Skype room and Microsoft Surface Tablets for customers to use.

“By definition a lounge is a place where you welcome your top tier of customers, and Brussels also has the biggest population of international expats, also a key target group for Microsoft, so it was interesting to Microsoft to partner with us,” Dechamps said.