Off the wire
• Weather forecast for major Chinese cities, regions -- Sept. 9  • Backgrounder: Refugee crisis in Europe  • Afghanistan marks Martyrs week for ex-resistance leader Masoud  • Zambian coach lauds team character  • Ship with 14 crews, 500 tons of cargo goes missing in South China Sea  • Weather forecast for world cities -- Sept. 9  • De Gea hopes Spain clean sheet will see him back in Utd frame  • Major news items in leading German newspapers  • 1st LD: French prison official taken hostage  • China implementing new round of high-level opening-up: FM spokesman  
You are here: 　 Home

Belgian national airline increases flights to west Africa

Xinhua, September 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

Belgium's national airline, Brussels Airlines, has announced it is doubling the number of flights to west-African countries that were affected by the Ebola outbreak, and has also reported a 12.5 percent year-on-year growth in passenger numbers in August.

The flag-carrying airline said in a statement on Wednesday that it transported 700,891 passengers in August 2015. Seat occupancy rate reached 83.9 percent, which the airline said was a record.

Brussels Airlines said passenger numbers on European flights in August were up 13.4 percent compared with the same month last year, with African flights recording a 7.9 percent passenger increase and New York and Washington long-haul services growing by 7.9 percent.

The company announced it will now fly to Liberia and Sierra Leone, the two countries worst-hit by the Ebola crisis in 2014, four times a week, up from the previous twice-weekly flights.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Libera Ebola-free on Sept. 3, following 10,672 confirmed cases of the disease and 4,808 deaths over an 18-month period.

WHO figures published on Sept. 7 show some new cases of Ebola are still being reported in Sierra Leone, where there have been 13,670 confirmed cases and 3,953 deaths.

Brussels Airlines said its chief executive Bernard Gustin joined a flight from Brussels to Monrovia, Liberia, on Sept. 8 as a flight attendant, to "show his gratitude towards the crew, but also towards the local staff in Africa."

Gustin said in a news release: "We have always continued our flights to these west-African countries during the Ebola crisis and with the increase of our flight offer, we want to actively contribute to the very necessary economic and social revival of the region."

He added: "One of the basic conditions of growth is easy access to a country, and with the increase of our flight offer we want to contribute actively to that."

Brussels Airlines, which employs 3,500 staff and has a fleet of 49 aircraft, said it would resume its overnight stopovers for crew in Liberia, which were banned in 2014 because of the Ebola outbreak. Enditem