Belgium

Far behind the "behemoth" Brussels Airlines, the private carrier Air Belgium was nonetheless a major player in air transport in Belgium. The airline, based for holiday flights at Brussels South-Charleroi, was founded in 2016. But its expansion was affected from the outset by external factors that weakened the carrier....

Could this be competition for the Eurostar on the Brussels-Amsterdam route? NS and SNCB have stated their intention to improve their rail services on this strategic route in the Benelux countries. The two national companies want to boost their capacity on the Belgium/Netherlands route. From 2025, 32 trains will run daily at up to 200 km/h on the Brussels-Antwerp-Amsterdam route....

SNCB's new transport plan aims to boost train travel in Belgium, with a target of 30% more passengers by 2032. With this plan, the Belgian railway company aims to achieve an annual output of 89.5 million train-km in 2026, an increase of 7.4% compared with the previous service...

The Dutch government has given rail operators until 10 June to offer services on international routes. Arriva Netherlands has seized this opportunity. On 8 June, this subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn submitted a route application to the Dutch Consumer and Markets Authority (ACM). The operator wants to...

Access: advantage Antwerp and Ghent are both easy to reach by car from France, with each linked by motorway. When it comes to rail, however, Antwerp has the edge. The Flemish metropolis is on the route of the Thalys trains linking Paris and Amsterdam. It takes an average of 2 hours 15 minutes to get there by train from Paris....

Brussels Airlines has just announced the integration of five new A320 neo aircraft in 2023 and 2024, expressing its confidence in a continued recovery in traffic over the next few years. The aircraft will also enable the Belgian airline to offer new destinations and additional frequencies in Europe. Fleet renewal to reduce carbon footprint Brussels...

On 20 June, it was Brussels airport's turn to face a staff shortage, with major consequences for business travellers. The airport management was forced to cancel all operations scheduled for Monday. The reason: strike action within the...

The inauguration of the Radisson Hotel Liège City Centre marks the arrival of the Radisson Group's upscale brand in Belgium. And the addition of around a hundred rooms - 99 keys to be exact - to the hotel catalogue in Belgium's third most populous urban area. The hotel group already had 14 representatives on the Belgian market,...

Good news for business travellers who regularly fly with Brussels Airlines: masks are no longer compulsory from Tuesday. "From tomorrow, 3 May, it will no longer be compulsory for passengers and cabin crew to wear masks on board Brussels Airlines aircraft. This...

Could this be another marketing ploy behind Brussels Airlines' new identity? You would think so when you see that the airline has just rejuvenated the visual appearance of its brand. And yet, this new identity allows the Belgian carrier to identify with what it has become. "We went through a period of...

The crisis must have seemed very long to the teams at Brussels Airlines, which was particularly weakened for many months by this period of turbulence. Nailed to the tarmac for months, the airline's aircraft are gradually returning to service, gradually expanding the network. The winter programme unveiled on 30 September confirms this renewed ambition,...

The Belgian rail company SNCB is testing the FTQ Lab purchase system, an innovative technology that will make travelling by train even simpler. In future, passengers will be able to use an application to check in as soon as they arrive at the station and check out as soon as they reach their destination. Thanks to GPS data, the...

Budget brand B&B Hotels has just added the Netherlands to its list of destinations with its first 93-room property in Zaandam, near Amsterdam. The hotel is currently being modernised to incorporate the new urban design imagined by interior architects Agence D'Istria Studio. This first step in the Netherlands will be followed by others. "In addition to...

175 years of the Paris-Brussels route, 25 candles for the Thalys company, but also - and this is much more topical for business travellers - an increase in frequencies after a year and a half of sluggish activity: June is a month of celebrations for the Franco-Belgian carrier, a subsidiary of...

Summer offers new prospects for Brussels Airlines, which is ramping up its operations from May onwards. The airline is densifying its network in Europe and Africa, and resuming flights to the United States. The acceleration of the vaccination in Europe should result in a probable resumption of traffic during this summer. Brussels...

On 18 January, SNCB unveiled its new mobile application designed to accompany passengers throughout their journeys. The new tool includes a multimodal journey planner, enabling users to calculate their itinerary from door to door. You can of course also buy train tickets, as well as...

Up to 40% of additional flights from December until the beginning of January and 12% of additional capacity from the start of the winter schedules on 25 October: Brussels Airlines is favouring its favourite continent, Africa, in its winter schedules. The continent is an essential element in the Belgian airline's positioning. In...

With the resurgence of infections linked to the covid-19 pandemic throughout the world, and particularly in Europe, travel conditions are once again becoming stricter for potential travellers. In less than two weeks, for example, the United Kingdom has decided to re-impose a quarantine on travellers from Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Ecological awareness and the Covid-19 crisis have had at least one positive effect on Europe's railways: the return of night trains. A fine revenge for a mode of transport that seemed doomed 20 years ago. The SNCF in France, the FS in Italy...

Brussels Airlines is introducing five new fare classes from 18 August. These fares are valid for all flights on or after September 1. The new fares will be familiar to passengers who are used to flying under the Lufthansa banner. The five fares will be open...