TheAAdmiral

It was a sad day when AA canceled ORD-BRU last year. I now fly BA ORD-LHR- BRU and find it to be a great option (not to mention awesome service on the 40 minute LHR-BRU segment).^

747

Remember the winter they had 777 service from LHR-BRU to keep a heathrow slot alive ?

PotNoodle

This is very upsetting, eventhough it is Star teritory DL can fly 2 767's per day to BRU. I was wondering who would bow out of this overserved market though with Sabena resuming BRU-JFK.

And I agree with others in that 33 employees is an obscene amount of people, AA should have outsourced those years ago.

Hopefully when AA can get competitive labour costs, a better product and a more efficient fleet then they may return. I think by operating a 757 on a route like that is a death trap as the product is naff therefore attracting tourists and just a few Biz folk, and with tourists a low CASM 767/777 would be better. I seriously feel the 757 is unnecessery due to high seat costs and poor product.

AA current TATL network:
JFK-LHR
JFK-MAN
JFK-CDG
JFK-ZRH
JFK-MAD
JFK-BCN
JFK-MXP
JFK-FCO

ORD-LHR
ORD-CDG
ORD-MAN
ORD-DUB
ORD-FCO
ORD-HEL

MIA-LHR
MIA-CDG
MIA-MAD
MIA-BCN

DFW-LHR
DFW-FRA
DFW-CDG
DFW-MAD

LAX-LHR

RDU-LHR

I may have missed some.

What amazes me is that AA can maintain a presence in difficult markets like Spain and Italy, whilst UA/CO and DL struggle due to 'low yields', also AA can manage to fly almost shuttle services to major markets like LHR and GRU and gain business dispite their product. I find it fascinating how AA can manage so much service in difficult markets but can not even manage a single flight to Belgium which should be easy to do (dispite Star) !!

gemac

Exactly my thoughts. Ticket counter hours were 6:30 AM to 10 AM. Flight pushed back at 10 AM. Figure 3 people to work the counter, one goes to the gate at 9 AM to become the gate agent, another goes to the gate at 9:30 AM. Giving a bit of time to organize things before and after, about 4-4.5 hours per day. Allowing for the occasional late departures, about 5 hours per day average per employee, perhaps 5 employees total to handle 7 day week and vacations, illness. Baggage handling is surely contract for 1 757 per day. What were the other 28 people doing?

I often think that the very strict European rules on terminating redundant employees works against their employees and their societies. This may be a case of that happening.

AAerSTL

Two actually-
BOS-LHR
BOS-CDG (seasonal)

It wouldn't surprise me if AA metal on BOS-LHR is next to go. AA 156 is being suspended for the winter. To think in four years time since I've been in Boston its gone from 2x 777 to 1x 75L...

bluegrinch

Ticket counter, marketing, corporate sales, cargo sales, warehouse, cargo handling, administration... AA does a lot in-house in BRU. Left over from more profitable times when they had the revenue for it, maybe.

gemac

You could make a pretty good case that they should be letting the sales people go, apparently. But that's my point - EU regulations make it very difficult to let people go. The idea is to protect jobs, but in my experience it often works the other way around, costs jobs.

West Coast Ace

Nice mature conversation here. On A.net the armchair CEOs are crying like little kids getting a time out.

Always wanted to go to BRU but never found a flight when I could go. But flying to LHR, ZRH, CDG and taking the train isn't the end of the world.

If this, and similar moves, keeps our airline afloat and out of the clutches of the oversized ego over in Arizona, I'm all for it.

craz

isnt Jet joining *A in '13? thusly maybe why 9W is keeping its EWR flight, and why AA wont be feeding 9Ws flight out of BRU = not filling up even a 757. And AA feels that with BA & IB it can serve BRU via LHR,BCN & MAD

Spiff

I avoid BA because of the surcharges and because the UK flouts EU law by not permitting opt-outs for its Nude-o-scopes.

I've flown JFK-BRU and then trained it to CDG when the fares to CDG were unfavorable. This is sad news.

jasondc

despite their product, AA does relatively well in Spain because of their tie in with Iberia. they funnel each other traffic on both ends due to their metal neutral JV agreement. That also includes the marketing/ sales aspect, so given that they have the largest presence they're going to get the largest portion of the traffic. The same happens in the UK - they along with BA work together and get a disproportionate share of the traffic. Not quite sure how it works for AA in Italy, but even there they do not have year round service everywhere.
The converse is true in Brussels/ Germany/ etc. UA and their Star Partners are dominant on both ends.
Sure. there's stuff left over, but it's the scraps (think bargain hunting tourists). Not worth flying. That's how Alliances, and especially revenue sharing, metal neutral alliances, are impacting transoceanic travel. Sad but true, and it's the wave of the future for all airlines.

Hyperacusis

AFAIK, there are no longer any NoS at LHR T5.

ElNegro

No surprise here, BRU is now a Star fortress. It was nice seeing AA at BRU while it lasted. Maybe when they get the 787, they can restart service.

elitetraveler

[QUOTE=AAerSTL;19118159]Blast from March 2012: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...bru-doing.html

I guess all the talk of AA being the "market leader" and highest average fare wasn't enough to keep them on the route.
/QUOTE]

LOL

tom911

Goodbye, Brussels. When I flew home last year on AA, my flight took a 24 hour mechanical and I was rerouted in business the next morning on BA BRU-LHR-SFO. Nice flight as I had paid for coach on AA with a systemwide upgrade secured. I can make LHR-BRU work if I need to.

Photo from my last visit in 2011 (more HERE):