News
Air Belgium claims 75-80% load factor on Hong Kong flights
August 17th 2018
This one doesn’t sound right. Read More » In an interview with Le Soir, Air Belgium CEO, Niky Terzakis, claimed that load factors on the airline’s Charleroi-Hong Kong route averaged 50-60% when the service was launched in June and have increased to 75-80% on “some days” in August.
These load factors appear highly unlikely. There are scores of media and social media reports showing photos and videos of “empty” A340s flying with only a handful of passengers. Ground crew and passenger accounts corroborate that Air Belgium’s flights departed with approximately 30-40 average passengers a flight only.
Nevertheless, this doesn’t seem to deter Terzakis and his Chinese and Russian investors from sinking additional funds into the airline to expand operations. In the same interview, Terzakis claimed that Air Belgium would start flying to Zhengzhou from September, followed by Wuhan from October and Taiyuan from November.
Despite likely attracting launch subsidies from municipal governments, none of the three Mainland cities are high-yield markets and it is difficult to imagine that there will be sufficient demand for the routes to make them sustainable.
In the meantime, Air Belgium continues flying its ageing A340-300s three times a week to Hong Kong. The airline initially planned to operate the route four- or five times a week, but later cancelled the additional frequencies.
Terzakis believes Hong Kong could become a mini hub for Air Belgium. The airline CEO hopes to have interline agreements with Asian carriers in place by October, connecting passengers to destinations in North and Southeast Asia. “From Charleroi, we'll be able to reach cities like Tokyo and Cebu,” he said. Only time will tell if any of this comes to fruition.
Air Belgium now has three ex-Finnair A340-300s. Officially the airline sells business class, premium economy and economy class tickets, although it has emerged that Air Belgium never installed premium economy cabins and instead seats those who booked premium economy tickets in the business class cabin.
Air Belgium is 49.995% owned by Aviation Investment Holding NV., which is held by Hong Kong investor Peter Yip, Russian businessman Alexey Sumchenko and a third party, Mikko Rautio. Aviation Investment Holding is itself owned by Hong Kong-based firms Pioneer Topworld Ltd and Sky Master Holdings Ltd.
The full-service carrier must have majority Belgian ownership to use Belgian traffic rights. The majority 50.005% equity is held by 3T Management & Associates BVBA (19.993%; represented by Air Belgium CEO, Niky Terzakis), regional government investor Societe Regionale d’Investissement de Wallonie NV (12.501%), national government investor Federale Participatie en Investeringsmaatschappij NV (12.501%) and Sabena Aerospace NV (5.01%). The airline has paid-in capital of EUR20 million (US$25 million).
Through its Hong Kong partners, the carrier has received investment from Mainland travel agency, UTour.
