Though the previous BeNeLux Aviation (https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=584457&hilit=BeneLux&start=50 ) thread wasn't a big success, I'll try it again, especially considering the possible reincarnation of both Air Belgium and VLM (will be intersting to see how that goes).

in the first week we got the relatively positive figures from BRU airport and it would be interesting to see if other airports in the BeNeLux will follow (though we know Maastrichts figures will probably be terrible).

Vueling is getting into the Amsterdam - Manchester market with a 6 weekly (daily except Saturday) flight as of Summer 2017. For those intersted the schedule:
VY8054 AMS dep 1820 arr MAN 1850
VY8055 MAN dep 1930 arr AMS 2155

China Airlines started A350 operations on their TPE-AMS route
OR will start AMS-PBM in July
KL is the third most punctual airline in the world (and most punctual European airline) according to OAG

2016 preliminary pax numbers for Schiphol Group Airports:

AMS: 63,6 million +9%
EIN: 4,7 million +9,3%
RTM: 1,6 million +/-%

flyingfool wrote:

2016 preliminary pax numbers for Schiphol Group Airports:

AMS: 63,6 million +9%
EIN: 4,7 million +9,3%
RTM: 1,6 million +/-%

Some impressive growth numbers. Are the movements known yet.

Dutchy wrote:

2016 preliminary pax numbers for Schiphol Group Airports:

Are the movements known yet.

- AMS 2016 movements 495.000 (incl. General Aviation)

- AMS for the first time ever = No. 1. Busiest airport in Europe.

factsonly wrote:

- AMS for the first time ever = No. 1. Busiest airport in Europe.

Highly doubt that. Neither LHR nor CDG have released their full year figures yet, but both will no doubt have had more passengers than AMS.

Will AMS become Europe's 3rd busiest airport ahead of FRA (and obviously IST)? Is this the first time AMS is ahead of FRA?

Btw I reckon this week most countries/airports will release figures for 2016.

Scorpio wrote:

factsonly wrote:

- AMS for the first time ever = No. 1. Busiest airport in Europe.

Highly doubt that. Neither LHR nor CDG have released their full year figures yet, but both will no doubt have had more passengers than AMS.

There are several ways to define 'busiest', one of them is by aircraft movements. Factsonly was right about the fact AMS has most.

Do Frankfurt, CDG and Heathrow see any small GA traffic at all? Or is it "airlines only"? I know Amsterdam still sees some GA traffic at Schiphol East where the GA terminal is located. Most of the GA traffic in the Netherlands uses smaller airfields such as Lelystad (busiest GA airport), but some still use Amsterdam.

Always wondered how this goes. For example, can someone with a PPL and a C-172 just fly to Heathrow and land there? Sure it would be expensive, but it would be fun to taxi a small Cessna among all those big aircraft and take off from that way too long runway.

factsonly wrote:

Dutchy wrote:

2016 preliminary pax numbers for Schiphol Group Airports:

Are the movements known yet.

- AMS 2016 movements 495.000 (incl. General Aviation)

A growth of more than 6% compared to 2015. If this growth continues at the same rate, the max of 500.000 movements will be reached in 2017. That's the main reason LEY is opening up for LCC and charter airlines in 2019 (the opening date has been delayed). Big problem however is that airlines are not really happy with LEY and practically no-one showed interest in moving their operations.

777klm wrote:

OR will start AMS-PBM in July

From what I read, OR will have a single weekly frequency on the AMS-PBM route and will codeshare on two of PY's three AMS-flights. How does this work with crew layovers? A week long layover for OR-crew won't make the bean-counters happy I presume.

AMS18C36C wrote:

777klm wrote:

OR will start AMS-PBM in July

From what I read, OR will have a single weekly frequency on the AMS-PBM route and will codeshare on two of PY's three AMS-flights. How does this work with crew layovers? A week long layover for OR-crew won't make the bean-counters happy I presume.

I guess its a long layover indeed. OR does it on more routes. A triangle route with either AUA, BON or CUR would have made sense te me, so crew is able te return sooner.

Flights are being operated as follows:

OR301
Dep. Monday 14:00 from AMS
Arr. Monday 19:25 in PBM
788

OR302
Dep. Monday 20:45 from PBM
Arr. Tuesday 11:00 in AMS
788

777klm wrote:

Big problem however is that airlines are not really happy with LEY and practically no-one showed interest in moving their operations.

That's not true, Ryanair has already expressed their interest in Lelystad. I think Transavia will as well, and maybe Wizzair. However it won't be a full move. Ryanair says they're interested in both Amsterdam and Lelystad, they'll serve the business destinations from Amsterdam and leisure destinations from Lelystad. Transavia might move a few operations, but I suspect they'll stay big in Amsterdam. Wizzair currently doesn't fly to Amsterdam, but they might shift some flights from Eindhoven to Lelystad.

PatrickZ80 wrote:

777klm wrote:

Big problem however is that airlines are not really happy with LEY and practically no-one showed interest in moving their operations.

That's not true, Ryanair has already expressed their interest in Lelystad. I think Transavia will as well, and maybe Wizzair. However it won't be a full move. Ryanair says they're interested in both Amsterdam and Lelystad, they'll serve the business destinations from Amsterdam and leisure destinations from Lelystad. Transavia might move a few operations, but I suspect they'll stay big in Amsterdam. Wizzair currently doesn't fly to Amsterdam, but they might shift some flights from Eindhoven to Lelystad.

I stand corrected. Just looked it up and totally missed that news. Thanks.
If I may add, HV says it only considers a switch when the move won't compromise their AMS network.

SCQ83 wrote:

Will AMS become Europe's 3rd busiest airport ahead of FRA (and obviously IST)? Is this the first time AMS is ahead of FRA?

Btw I reckon this week most countries/airports will release figures for 2016.

AMS passed FRA early in 2016, so Yes this year sees a reshuffle of European hub rankings:

The January to November 2016 pax data are (December results will not change this ranking):

- AMS 58.857.244 pax
- FRA 56.532.764 pax

For total number of passengers the 2016 ranking will be:

1. LHR
2. CDG
3. AMS
4. FRA
5. IST

For total number of aircraft movements the 2016 ranking will be:

1. AMS
2. LHR
3. CDG
4. FRA
5. IST

How did LUX do in 2016 regarding passenger numbers? Did they increase or decrease?

Brussels Airport had no chance to produce good numbers this year. A decline of 7% compared to 2015, due to the terrorist attacks at March 22nd.
Fortunately, the numbers in the last months show hope again. December traffic was up compared to 2015.
Surely 2017 will show how this airport can recover from those horrible events.
http://www.luchtzak.be/airports/brussel ... rowth-8-3/

A quick overview of new AMS routes / frequencies for S17:

- AM - B787 MEX increase from 3x/week to daily
- AA - B767 DFW daily

- KL - DUB 4x daily
- KL - LCY 4x daily
- KL - GRZ 1x daily
- KL - OPO 1x daily
- KL - GDN 1x daily
- KL - MSP 3x weekly
- KL - FNA-RBO 3x weekly
- KL - SPU 6x weekly peak summer seasonal
- KL - AGP 1x daily peak summer seasonal
- KL - CTA 1x daily peak summer seasonal
- KL - CAG 1x daily peak summer seasonal

- HV - HEL 4x weekly
- HV - TIR 3x weekly
- HV - SOF 3x weekly
- HV - BEG 3x weekly
- HV - WRO 3x weekly
- HV - KTW 3x weekly
- HV - LJU 3x weekly
- HV - REU 2x weekly
- HV - LEI 2x weekly
- HV - CIY 1x weekly

- FI - KEF from 14x to 18x weekly
- WW - KEF from 7x to 14x weekly

- KE - SEL from 5x to 6x weekly
- A3 - ATH from 5x to 7x weekly
- DY - HEL 2x weekly
- DY - ARN from 6x to 8x weekly

- EZY - EDI from 13x to 16x weekly
- EZY - GLA from 4x to 6x weekly
- EZY - LGW from 49x to 53x weekly
- EZY - AGP from 5x to 7x weekly
- EZY - PMI from 4x to 6x weekly
- EZY -- PRG from 9x to 11x weekly
- EZY - OLB from 2x to 4x weekly
- EZY - BUD 3x weekly
- EZY - SPU from 3x to 5x weekly
- EZY - TLV from 4x to 6x weekly
- EZY - ZRH 3x weekly

- KM - MLA from 7x to 8x weekly
- JU - BEG from 9x to 11x weekly
- SK - OSL from 12x to 15x weekly

- VY - FLR 1x daily (peak) summer seasonal
- VY - MAN 1x daily
- EW - MUC 1x daily
- PS - IEV from 11x to 14x weekly

Anything missing?

Vueling also starting Santiago from March.

User001 wrote:

Vueling also starting Santiago from March.

Is a long standing VY summer seasonal route, used to be operated weekly by IB DC9-30 in the 1970s and 1980s.

777klm wrote:

AMS18C36C wrote:

777klm wrote:

OR will start AMS-PBM in July

From what I read, OR will have a single weekly frequency on the AMS-PBM route and will codeshare on two of PY's three AMS-flights. How does this work with crew layovers? A week long layover for OR-crew won't make the bean-counters happy I presume.

I guess its a long layover indeed. OR does it on more routes. A triangle route with either AUA, BON or CUR would have made sense te me, so crew is able te return sooner.

Flights are being operated as follows:

OR301
Dep. Monday 14:00 from AMS
Arr. Monday 19:25 in PBM
788

OR302
Dep. Monday 20:45 from PBM
Arr. Tuesday 11:00 in AMS
788

AUA, BON and CUR are a bit out of the way for a traingular route to PBM, no? When MP served PBM, they had one or two of their frequences form a triangular route with TAB.

NichCage wrote:

How did LUX do in 2016 regarding passenger numbers? Did they increase or decrease?

It will be an increase but how much is not yet known. My experience is that they're one of the last of the large airports in the BeNeLux to publish results on their website.

Speaking of LUX, Ryanair has started operations from LUX as of last November. In 2017, they'll be going to Madrid, Lisbon and Milan (all 4 times weekly). Thus figures for 2017 will look promising.

VLM announced to restart operations end 2016 with an A320 - any updates so far?

Rumours are around, that SN will lease SSJ's in 2017 - any more infos?

debonair wrote:

VLM announced to restart operations end 2016 with an A320 - any updates so far?

Rumours are around, that SN will lease SSJ's in 2017 - any more infos?

News about SN's SSJ wet-lease agreement with WX: http://m.atwonline.com/leasing/brussels ... -superjets

Has SN discussed any plans to add any additional North American routes in the future? I could see BRU-BOS-BRU working 3 or 4 times weekly if flights were timed for African connections.

The highest court in The Netherlands approved the expansion plans for Lelystad Airport today. All objections have been turned down and thus the airport may increase the runway from 1,250m to 2,700m an widen it from 30m ter 45m.

georgiabill wrote:

Has SN discussed any plans to add any additional North American routes in the future? I could see BRU-BOS-BRU working 3 or 4 times weekly if flights were timed for African connections.

I dont think there is enough space in BOS.

NichCage wrote:

How did LUX do in 2016 regarding passenger numbers? Did they increase or decrease?

The figures are out. Total number of passengers was 3,020,000 in 2016, which means an increase of 12.4% compared to 2015. The number of passengers exceeded the forecast in 2015 (the forecast was 2.85mln).

https://www.lux-airport.lu/another-record-year-luxembourg-airport/

Cargo increased from 759,000tons to 821,000tons (an increase of 8.2%). The growth was attributed to a strong second half, very strong peak season in Q4 (cargo was up 27% in December) and expansion of QR Cargo (they moved from 6 to 17 flights)


https://www.lux-airport.lu/another-record-year-luxembourg-airport-2/

TUI Belgium announced some new routes for S17

Brussels CRL

– Essaouira 1 weekly as of June 2th
– Hurghada 2 weekly as of June 3rd
– Naples 2 weekly as of April 29th
– Sarajevo 2 weekly as of March 31st
– Trieste 1 weekly as of June 2th
– Tunis 2 weekly as of April 28th
Naples and Essaouira Embraer E190 other flights mix of 737-800 and A320

Brussels BRU

– Brač 1 weekly as of May23rd
– Patrai 1 weekly as of May 9th
– Tivat 2 weekly as of April 28th
All Embraer E190

Ostend

– Almeria 2 weekly between July 1st and September 2nd (B737-800/Embraer E190)
– Eskisehir 1 weekly as of April 6th (B737-800 )
– Faro 2 weekly between July 1st and September 2nd (Embraer E190)
– Ibiza 2 weekly as of April 28th (Embraer E190)

Air Belgium just released its livery: http://www.luchtzak.be/airlines/air-bel ... rbus-a340/

Startup expected next June with A340: http://www.luchtzak.be/airlines/air-bel ... -belgique/

Also new route Charleroi - Eilat with Ryanair announced today.

Is this the first time CRL has flights to Israel?

I am surprised Pobeda has not announced a VKO-CRL. It would suit them very well.

Hereby an overview of all commercial airports in the BeNeLux and their 2016 ranking based on number of passengers, cargo and number of movements

Number of passengers
1. AMS 63,26,363 (+9.07%)
2. BRU 21,818,418 (-/-7.00%)
3. CRL 7,303,720 (+4.99%)
4. EIN 4,780,197 (+9.29%)
5. LUX 3,020,000 (+12.27%)
6. RTM 1,643,993 (+0.28%)
7. OST 434,970 (+57.58%)
8. LGG 382,000 (+27.63%)
9. ANR 276,311 (+24.94%)
10. MST 176,562 (-/-9.54%)
11. GRQ 152,451 (-/- 26.94%)
12. DHR 104,677 (-/-22.06%)

LGG and OST switched places (LGG was previously 7th and OST 8th). ANR moved up yet another place as it continued to grow whilst GRQ dropeed from 9th to 11th place.

Cargo (figures in tons)
1. AMS 1,694,126 (+2.36%)
2. LUX 821,000 (+8.17%
3. LGG 6660,000 (+1.57%)
4. BRU 494,637 (+1.09%)
5. MST 60,480 (+6.81%)
6. OST 22,224 (+31.96%)
7. DHR 302 (-/-21.63%)
8. RTM 82 (+2.5%)

Other airports do not report any freight nor post.

Movements

1. AMS 496,676 (+6.70%)
2. BRU 223,688 (-/-6.54%)
3. CRL 75,038 (+1.52%)
4. RTM 52,529 (+3.34%)
5. ANR 41,403 (-/-8.60%)
6. EIN 32,659 (+6.78%)
7. GRQ 24,746 (+5.50%)
8. OST 24,183 (-/-8.44%)
9. MST 16,288 (-/-32.22%)
10. DHR 9,194 (-/-15.99%)

No information available for LGG and LUX

Note that the source for AMS, RTM, MST, EIN and GRQ are the official CBS figures. These may differ than those publicised by the airports themselves.

So AMS saw roughly the same number of flights as ALL other Benelux airports combined . . .

PW100 wrote:

So AMS saw roughly the same number of flights as ALL other Benelux airports combined . . .

To be honest, the figures from LGG and LUX are not in the overview, and I would expect it to be around 45,000 for both airports... However, the totals of all commercial airports in the BeNeLux exclusding AMS is almost 2/3 of the number of passengers AMS had in 2016.....

Qatar cargo will increase its cargo flights to Brussels with 2 additional weekly flights as of February 15th. Flights will be operated by teh A330-200F

Some routenews.

Ryanair will inaugurate EIN - VLC as of October. Flights will be 3 weekly. In addition, Transavia announced it will resume RTM -VLC as of April 14th. Flights will operated 4 weekly.

TUIfly will operate Rotterdam - Kos (3 weekly) and Rotterdam - Palma de Mallorca (one weekly) in peak Summer season.

SN Brussels will discontinue Belfast City as of S17.

Finally, as mentioned in another thread, KLM will start flights to Mauritius as of W17. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1355601

http://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl/nieuws/categorie/2/airlines/transavia-doekt-operatie-in-munchen-op
Not sure if it's real BeNeLux news, but Transavia being a Dutch airline and the aircraft returning to the Dutch bases I thought it should be here.
Link only in Dutch, but the article talks about Transavia closing their Munich base, following disappointing figures over 2016. Competitors AirBerlin and TUI are named the main reasons that it didn't work. A total of 4 B738's were based in Munich. Part of the crew will return to NL as well, part will have their contracts ended.
In my personal opinion it was never going to work due to the lack of scale,but can't blame them for trying!

Hi, any idea why Luxair's LX-LGS B737-700 was in BTS, but now is back in service? Maybe maintenance?

It seems we'll have a new commercial airport in the BeNeLux in 2019. Today, Lelystad airport announced it is planned to open for commercial operations on April 1st 2019 (and this is no April's fool joke). Originally the plan was April 1st 2018, but this was not feasible. However, the airport hopes that the infrastructure will be reasy by that date. It also hopes the MRO activities can be expanded by that date to larger aircraft.

Rumors are around, that TUIfly will start soon AMS-LPA/TFS with Surinam's sole A340...

http://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl/nieuws/c ... e-eilanden

debonair wrote:

Rumors are around, that TUIfly will start soon AMS-LPA/TFS with Surinam's sole A340...

http://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl/nieuws/c ... e-eilanden

Well the delay stats for those flights are going to be interesting combining TUI and SLM, it'll be good business for EUClaim...

debonair wrote:

VLM announced to restart operations end 2016 with an A320 - any updates so far?

Vlm will not restart operations in Antwerp, nor from Belgium but from Maribor, Slovenia!!

http://www.luchtzak.be/airlines/vlm-air ... r-airport/

Flights from Maribor to Xian, Chongqing and Nanchang - do they mean passenger flights or cargo?

konkret wrote:

Flights from Maribor to Xian, Chongqing and Nanchang - do they mean passenger flights or cargo?

Passenger flights ...

I always wondered why no one flies MBX-KHN yet! Seems like a license to print money.
With so many direct pax on this route they probably don't need too much feed, and 6 F50 will be more than enough to feed 15 A330 flights.

debonair wrote:

Rumors are around, that TUIfly will start soon AMS-LPA/TFS with Surinam's sole A340...

http://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl/nieuws/c ... e-eilanden

However other rumours indicate that it's just in case of TUI fly (new name, not TUIfly anymore!) will use the A340 in case of one of its own aircraft is goign tech or any other delay.

LJ wrote:

Though the previous BeNeLux Aviation (https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=584457&hilit=BeneLux&start=50 ) thread wasn't a big success, I'll try it again, especially considering the possible reincarnation of both Air Belgium and VLM (will be intersting to see how that goes).

in the first week we got the relatively positive figures from BRU airport and it would be interesting to see if other airports in the BeNeLux will follow (though we know Maastrichts figures will probably be terrible).

Vueling is getting into the Amsterdam - Manchester market with a 6 weekly (daily except Saturday) flight as of Summer 2017. For those intersted the schedule:
VY8054 AMS dep 1820 arr MAN 1850
VY8055 MAN dep 1930 arr AMS 2155

Considering the large non-European mix here it would be nice if you explained what your newly created mix of BeNeLux means. As this is not an Airline term but a personal mix of shorthand. It's like me saying lets talk about the PazWCA Aviation. After all can you decider what my made up mix means without farther information.

rbavfan wrote:

LJ wrote:

your newly created mix of BeNeLux means. As this is not an Airline term but a personal mix of shorthand. It's like me saying lets talk about the PazWCA Aviation.

The Benelux is far from a 'personal mix of shorthand', it's a well established union of the 3 member states that has it's own parlement and court. Like unions as the EU and ASEAN it's perfectly normal to use it without further explanation.

^BeNeLux is a very well-known shorthand for Belgium-Netherlands-Luxembourg...

BelAviaFan wrote:

debonair wrote:

VLM announced to restart operations end 2016 with an A320 - any updates so far?

Vlm will not restart operations in Antwerp, nor from Belgium but from Maribor, Slovenia!!

http://www.luchtzak.be/airlines/vlm-air ... r-airport/

Apparently VLM will still restart Antwerp flights, including Antwerp-Manchester with the F50:

http://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl/nieuws/c ... ijke-basis