Brussels Airlines is an interesting beast within the Lufthansa Group. Arguably, it has been treated like the unloved stepchild in recent years, sometimes lumped in with low-cost carrier Eurowings, sometimes abandoned to its own devices.
Like Eurowings, it was notably absent from any mention during the launch event for FICE (the future intercontinental experience launched as Lufthansa Allegris) in Berlin, from which I returned to my home airport in Lyon via Brussels.
Oddly, this was the only connecting flight via the entire Lufthansa Group network in the latter part of the day, so I was interested to see how the passenger experience stacked up to Austrian, Lufthansa and Swiss, all of which I’ve flown in the last couple of years.
The lounge at Berlin was overcrowded to the extent that there was a queue to get in, with poor food and beverage options. It seemed to be entirely full of Lufthansa passengers since for some reason the Lufthansa group lounge wasn’t open, in that “not open yet” kind of way.
For an airport that is brand new (yes, in theory, and with all its history) this was shockingly poor, and airlines should seriously consider simply issuing passengers a voucher for terminal cafés rather than messing people about with this substandard offering.
The lounge experience in Brussels was unimpressive. Image: John Walton
Boarding was an unfortunate scrum, mostly because the airport’s gate areas are poorly designed, with people spilling out everywhere into the narrow corridors — even for this, an A320 narrowbody flight.
No attempt was made at any form of queue management or grouping of passengers before the surge for boarding as groups 1 and 2 was announced.
The lovely sunset created a pretty glow as we boarded. Image: John Walton
Onboard, the Brussels cabin is very similar to the rest of the Lufthansa Group, with the then-standard Recaro BL3520 slimlines that Lufthansa called NEK (Neue Europakabine), differing only in that they are in a dark blue rather than Lufthansa grey and it felt like they offered slightly less legroom.
Legroom felt tighter than Lufthansa, although the good old Recaro slimlines were comfortable enough. Image: John Walton
I found the barrier between business and economy to be risible: it’s a single velcroed piece of plastic that the crew sticks onto the headrest of the last row of business, with “Economy” printed on it. It just feels cheap and tacky.
These dividers. Just… no. Image: John Walton
Overall, the cabin atmosphere throughout my two flights felt stark and cold. The lighting was set to bright daylight white throughout, which was tiring on the eyes, and there was no warmth or comfort in any of the passenger experience design.
The cabin was stark, cold and with little interest or warmth. Image: John Walton
The business food and beverage concept was interesting: essentially, business class gets a free boxed salad and free rein of the economy drinks cart.
The chunks of vegetable and fork-sizes pieces of raw spinach were tasty, if enormous. Image: John Walton
On my first flight, this was a falafel with large, semi-raw and quite unwieldy “coloured vegetables”, and on my second it was “sweet comté”, with cheese and raisins. These were both tasty and reasonably hearty, but trying to eat them with wooden cutlery felt incredibly cheap for business class.
To misquote Mommie Dearest, “No. Wooden. Cutlery!” in business class. Image: John Walton
I was amused to find the crew of my Berlin to Brussels flight also operating Brussels-Lyon, and they were as pleasant on the second flight as they had been on the first, keeping me topped up with caffeine for a late drive home.
If the shops in Brussels Airport hadn’t been basically closed during the hour I spent there (8–9pm on a Tuesday), it would have been a decent experience. If Brussels Airlines is going to operate an evening bank of flights, it needs to ensure that the terminal is in fact open — at least the Starbucks, and perhaps somewhere that a connecting passenger might purchase some of the famous Belgian chocolate?
Brussels Airport was spacious but dark — and mostly closed. Image: John Walton
The terminal, while industrial, is airy and offers travelators to speed you to your connection. Yet gate areas offer perhaps a hundred or so seats, while serving aircraft that seat up to twice that many. Crowding and a gate scrum is the result.
I stopped off briefly at the lounge, which also felt like it was closing, with picked-over mediocre food and a general ambience where it felt like half the lights were turned off.
It’s a pity Brussels cheaps out on so much of the experience, because it’s so subpar compared with the rest of the Lufthansa Group’s shorthaul business offering.
Your author reckons that Lufthansa needs to seriously reconsider the airline’s positioning — it promises (and prices tickets at) a full-service carrier experience, but it’s inferior even to Eurowings.
From 15 April, Brussels Airlines will have a new chief at the helm, following the departure of Peter Gerber for Condor Airlines, and the appointment of an interim head.
Dorothea von Boxberg, who currently serves as chairperson of the Executive Board of Lufthansa Cargo AG, will take over as CEO of Brussels Airlines in Belgium, with responsibility for driving the carrier’s transformation in the coming years.
Brussels wasn’t “Belgian Lufthansa”. It wasn’t even “Belgian Eurowings”. Image: John Walton
Lufthansa provided these flights from Lyon to Berlin via Frankfurt in order for RGN’s journalist to attend the Allegris launch event. As ever, all opinions are those of the author.
Related Articles:
- Celebrating cabin consistency on a very old A321-100 and early A320neo
- Lufthansa’s Allegris business class takes unbundling to the extremes
- Lufthansa Allegris premium economy and economy: overall better
- When BA Euro Traveller with add-ons outshines Club Europe
- Geven Essenza sparkles as Austrian A320 Eurobusiness
- Winter delay proves effectiveness of Brussels and Eurowings PaxEx
Featured image credited to John Walton
