Originally Posted by
Bristol_Traveller
Resumption of BRS-BRU flights, which was originally scheduled for 31MAR by SN, has been pushed back to 01MAY. They didn't give an explanation when I asked, but I assume it's connected to CityJet providing the aircraft to operate it.
I'm a bit concerned that 01MAY (a Wednesday) is just a placeholder date, and that it may change again.
I'm a bit annoyed, as I'm flying to the USA in April, and had planned to fly BRS-BRU-USA. Now I have to trek off to LHR (again) in the middle of the night.
I've also heard nothing about any plans to find an airline to fly to Germany (FRA, MUC, etc.).
I've no doubt you are aware of some of this, B_T, but for the sake of completeness I'll run back over the timeline.
In early November last year the Brussels Airlines web booking engine showed they were taking back the BRS-BRU route from the flybmi code share from 31 March this year, with the same frequencies and virtually the same timings. The aircraft type was shown as RJ85, presumably CityJet. Unless they had a crystal ball they could not have known then that flybmi would cease operations in the middle of February.
On 19 February, three days after flybmi's closure, I checked the Brussels Airlines booking engine and found that flights on BRS-BRU were still bookable from 31 March with RJ85s. However, the website also contained a notice saying,
Due to the ceased operations of our partner airline flybmi, all flights to and from Bristol are cancelled until further notice. This of course was at odds with the airline's booking engine.
On 26 February I asked Bristol Airport if they had any information about BRS-BRU. All they did was refer me to flybmi's press statement at the time that airline ceased to operate which was less than helpful.
By then the Brussels Airlines website had put back the start date for their RJ85 service to 1 May which is still the situation.
Just to complicate it further, a member of another forum which which I am associated contacted Brussels Airlines around 26 February and was informed,
We are still looking for the best option on the long term. We'll communicate about Bristol and other routes soon. Sorry for any inconvenience. Yet then as now they were still showing flights from 1 May on their own website.
My enquiry was not just academic. I was looking to use the route in the late spring but I shan't take the risk that it will be put back further and have made other arrangements. As for FRA and MUC, it's a job to see which airline could operate these routes.