Air Belgium is almost ready for take off

Air Belgium is preparing to start operations soon, the airline has been awarded with an operating certificate. This allows the airline to start sellings tickets. The airline will be based at Brussels South Charleroi Airport (CRL) and it will offer low-fare tickets to Asian destinations.

The airline will use old Airbus A340-300s that were originally from Finnair. The first aircraft has arrived at Brussels and it has been painted in Air Belgium livery.

Air Belgium's A340s will have 303 seats divided into three classes.

Economy Class:

264 seats in a 2-4-2 configuration. The seats have a legroom of 78,7CM (31”) and seat width of 46CM (18”).

Premium Class (Premium Economy):

Air Belgium's Premium Economy class has a layout of 2-3-2, making it 7 seats per row. 21 total seats. Seats have a legroom of 91,4CM (36").

Business Class:

The Business Class seats will feature a full-flat 2 meters bed with power outlets. There will be a total of 18 Business Class seats.

Air Belgium has announced Hong Kong as its first route in April of 2018. The exact date of launch has yet to be announced.

When asked about the airline's routes, Air Belgium's CEO said: "Assuming there is no further delay at Airbus, we will start flying to Hong Kong about four times a week. We plan on increasing this to six flights a week by the fall of 2018. And we’ll be serving six other destinations on the Chinese mainland as of May 2018." (Airline Geeks)

Air Belgium plans to focus on long-haul flights rather than regional flights to Europe.

The airline may struggle with its rather old aircraft that can lead to higher costs and less profit. Airbus A340s have a high maintance cost due to it being a 4-engine aircraft. In addition, the airline may face competition. As of March 14th, 2018, no airline flies between Brussels and Hong Kong. However, Cathay Pacific will start flights from its base in Hong Kong to the Belgium city of Brussels on March 25, 2018. The route will be served 4 times a week by Cathay's state-of-art Airbus A350-900, which is capable of carrying 280 passengers.