The inauguration of Air Belgium flights between that country’s capital, Brussels, and Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa, marked the implementation of the carrier’s new business model. “We’re going from serving niche markets to a major market,” Air Belgium CEO Niki Terzakis told Engineering News Online in an exclusive interview in Cape Town, on Monday.

For the airline, South Africa is a major market. He pointed out that 188 Belgian companies had invested in South Africa. Further, South Africa hosted the biggest overseas community of Belgians in the world, with most of them residing in or around Cape Town.

The airline was currently serving Johannesburg directly from Brussels, and then flying from Johannesburg to Cape Town to unload passengers travelling to the Mother City. The return flight reversed the process, leaving Cape Town, stopping at Johannesburg to pick up more passengers, and then flying direct to Brussels. The services were being operated twice weekly.

“Cape Town is complementary to Johannesburg,” he explained. “But [the] Cape Town [link] will be flown the whole year round.”

The airline was hoping to introduce a direct Brussels-Cape Town service, although at first that might be flown on a seasonal basis only. The ultimate intention, however, was for a year-round direct Brussels-Cape Town route.

“We have also made a deal with [South African airline] Airlink,” he reported. “Airlink is a great partner – this is the first deal of this kind that we have made.” This gave Air Belgium passengers access to Airlink’s network of South African and Southern African destinations.  

Air Belgium was hoping that its new service would stimulate traffic in both directions. To this end, Terzakis called on the Belgian authorities to “open up more” to travellers from South Africa, in terms of issuing visas.

Air Belgium was operating the South Africa route using Airbus A330-900 widebody airliners (a model in the A330 new engine option, or A330neo, family). “They offer a 25% fuel burn reduction, and so fewer carbon emissions,” he highlighted. “The noise footprint is reduced by 38%. We operate them in three classes – business, premium and economy.”