It goes without saying that terror attacks can greatly impact the demand for travel. I’m not just talking about the demand for travel to the city where such an attack occurred, but even the demand for travel in general, as some people are afraid to travel following attacks in popular cities.
For example, the terror attacks in Paris late last year cost Air France an estimated €50m.
I suspect the recent attacks in Brussels will have an even more lasting impact on both the airport and tourism in Brussels in general. Since one of the bombings was at Brussels Airport itself, the airport is still shut down, and it could be a while before it reopens.
Brussels Airport
At the moment Brussels Airlines is operating select regional flights out of nearby airports, while they’re operating their longhaul flights out of Frankfurt Airport. I can’t even imagine what a logistical challenge that is, and how much it has impacted them financially.
Brussels Airlines A330
However, I suspect the impact will be much more long lasting than it was in Paris, given the airport closure and also that Brussels is more of a secondary aviation market than Paris.
It seems like airlines are starting to respond to the Brussels attacks in more permanent ways. Per airliners.net, Delta has canceled their Atlanta to Brussels route for the rest of 2016.
Delta 767
While no formal announcement has been made, the flight has been removed from the schedule.
Delta plans to resume their New York to Brussels flight once the airport reopens, though I’ll be curious to see what that looks like in practice.
While Brussels is a Star Alliance hub and has been a key transatlantic city for United, other than that it’s not very well served by US carriers. American’s only remaining route to Brussels is out of Philadelphia, though I wonder if that will last through the summer schedule.
Hopefully the airport in Brussels reopens soon and demand isn’t impacted too badly following the attacks.
Do you think more airlines will pull out of Brussels following the recent attacks, or will demand recover once the airport reopens?
Flyertalk is reporting that UA is also cutting frequency to EWR and is downsizing the remaining aircraft. Evidently this decrease in capacity comes at the request of the airport authorities and is not necessarily a direct reflection of loss of demand.
@ Keith - Since you insist on making broad generalizations, then I'll also offer a ridiculous generalization and say that Europeans can be incredibly ignorant. Sure, you could be the victim of a violent crime by wandering around the wrong neighborhood in U.S. cities, but using crime statistics to dismiss travelers' fears of terrorism is like comparing apples and oranges. Crime is not so nearly as unpredictable and random as the kind of terrorism that...
@ Keith - Since you insist on making broad generalizations, then I'll also offer a ridiculous generalization and say that Europeans can be incredibly ignorant. Sure, you could be the victim of a violent crime by wandering around the wrong neighborhood in U.S. cities, but using crime statistics to dismiss travelers' fears of terrorism is like comparing apples and oranges. Crime is not so nearly as unpredictable and random as the kind of terrorism that struck Brussels. To claim that they are comparable is to insist that American cities are like the wild wild west with outlaws blazing their guns. It's just not true.
Like Travis mentioned above, perhaps, a better term to use would be "suspended". They have, in theory, an intent in to bring the flight back and just simply can't fly to BRU at the moment.
ATL-BRU is actually suspended until March 31st, 2017.
So sad to see this happening to my home airport...
Hoping everything gets back to normal before summer
I'm guessing this route was underperforming for Delta and this was the last straw. Definitely bad to see trans-atlantic routes get cancelled.
Lucky, are you gonna start any new travel reports soon? There are so many cool trips you've taken I can't wait to read about!
It really is sad! But according to Delta, the airport isn't ready for many flights. Terrorists suck!
For info , Brussels airport is re-opening tomorrow for only 3 flights and will increase capacity to 20% in the coming days.
From Brussels,
Gilles
Blind*
So ridiculous. You're probably much more likely to get shot / murdered in Atlanta than you are in Brussels. Americans can be so blinds sometimes, it's embarrassing.
Big 3 took a bath on Paris Q4. Can't imagine Brussels will be any different.