High fuel prices reduce Air Belgium offer

Air Belgium is cutting deep into its offerings early next year. The Belgian airline is scrapping almost all flights to the Antilles. For curtailing its offer, Air Belgium points to high fuel prices.

The increased costs have already forced the airline to reduce capacity and combine flights to several destinations in the summer: those to the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique and those to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic with those to the Dutch island of Curaçao.

Now the airline is going one step further, as it denounces that fuel prices in the Dominican Republic are more than half higher and passenger taxes three times higher than in Brussels. Added to this is the euro's loss in value against the dollar. Punta Cana airport also forces passengers with destination Curaçao to disembark and re-embark, which means they also have to pay taxes.

Until mid-January, Air Belgium still operates one or two flights to Curaçao and Punta Cana. After that, the airline will suspend the connection, except during the February and March spring holidays. It has not yet been decided whether the destinations will be included in the summer offer again. The Dutch island of Bonaire, served from Brussels with a triangular connection via Curaçao, will also disappear from the schedule.

After spring break, Air Belgium will no longer operate the Martinique-Guadeloupe-Charleroi triangular route. Flights to Pointe-à-Pitre and Fort-de-France are unlikely to resume before the 2023 winter season in October. Nothing will change for Martinique and flights between Brussels and Mauritius and the service to South Africa - from Brussels to Johannesburg and Cape Town - which started in September.

^{© EASY FOTOSTOCK}