Early years (2005–2010) in an interim livery following SABENA takeover Brussels Airlines was created following the merger of
Virgin Express and
SN Brussels Airlines (SNBA, the name adopted by Delta Air Transport on February 15, 2002). This company was created after the bankruptcy of Belgium's previous national carrier,
Sabena. On 12 April 2005, SN Airholding, the company behind SNBA, signed an agreement with
Richard Branson, giving it control over Virgin Express. On 31 March 2006, SNBA and Virgin Express announced their merger into a single company. On 7 November 2006, the new name, Brussels Airlines, was announced at a press conference at Brussels Airport. Brussels Airlines began operations on 25 March 2007. Sometime during this period, the airline was forced to change its 13-dot logo to a 14-dot logo owing to
superstitious passengers complaining about the logo. On 15 September 2008, it was announced that
Lufthansa would acquire a 45% stake in Brussels Airlines with an option to acquire the remaining 55% from 2011. As a part of this deal, Brussels Airlines would join
Star Alliance. From 26 October 2008, the
ICAO code was changed from
DAT to
BEL. On 15 June 2009, Brussels Airlines announced that the
European Commission had granted approval for Lufthansa to take a minority share in Brussels Airlines. As a result of this clearance by the EU, Brussels Airlines was able to join
Star Alliance. Lufthansa purchased 45% of the company in 2009, and acquired the remainder in January 2017. Since 25 October 2009, Brussels Airlines has been a member of Lufthansa's frequent flyer programme
Miles & More. On 9 December 2009, Brussels Airlines became the 26th
Star Alliance member during a ceremony at Brussels Town Hall. On 15 December 2009, Brussels Airlines announced it was working on a new regional airline in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo. The name of the airline was
Korongo. The main base of the airline was at
Lubumbashi in Congo. The airline was launched in April 2012 and shut down in 2015. Brussels Airlines cancelled the
airDC project, due to disagreements with
Hewa Bora.
Development since 2010 in an interim livery , the main operational base On 5 July 2010, a fifth
Airbus A330-300 entered into service. Brussels Airlines increased its frequency to
Abidjan (up to 6 weekly) and added
Accra,
Cotonou,
Ouagadougou, and
Lomé as new destinations. On 11 August 2010, Brussels Airlines and tour operator
Club Med announced a new cooperation. As of April 2011, Brussels Airlines will transport 80% of all Club Med passengers out of
Brussels, both on existing regular Brussels Airlines routes as on new charter routes operated by Brussels Airlines. Brussels Airlines also announced that it will lease 2
Airbus A320 aircraft from January 2011. On 26 August 2010, the company announced its new maintenance project. The contract with Sabena Technics for the
A330 and
Boeing 737 ended on 1 January 2011 and Brussels Airlines will then do the plane maintenance. To do this, the move from Building 117 to Hangar 41 was necessary. Also, 73 people from Sabena Technics joined the Brussels Airlines maintenance staff. On 1 June 2012, Brussels Airlines inaugurated the route to
New York JFK, operating daily with an
Airbus A330-300 fitted with the new interior. This is the first Belgian airline in 10 years to fly to New York, after
Sabena and
Delsey Airlines collapsed. Since 18 June 2013, they also fly 5 times a week to
Washington Dulles. Since April 2016,
Toronto Pearson has been added to the North American network. It has been announced that as of March 2017, a new service to
Mumbai will commence with 5 flights per week operated by a new
Airbus A330-200 arriving early 2017. On 30 January 2014, Brussels Airlines added 9 seasonal destinations and returned to the Polish market after some years of absence. It also confirmed the permanent exit of its
Avro RJ100 fleet by 2016. In April 2015, Brussels Airlines was praised by the
White House for continuing its normal flying operation to Western African countries during the
Ebola outbreak, allowing essential aid to be delivered. All other airline companies, except Royal Air Maroc, suspended their flights to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. On 22 March 2016, members of the terrorist organization
ISIL detonated two bombs in Brussels Airport, closing the airport until Sunday, 27 March 2016. Brussels Airlines shifted some long haul flights to Zurich and Frankfurt. They began Airbus A319/Avro RJ100 shuttle service between Liege/Antwerp and Zurich/Frankfurt, as well as providing contracted bus service from Brussels to Antwerp and Liege from where it served European destinations. On 28 September 2016, the supervisory board of Lufthansa announced that the airline would exercise the option to acquire the remaining 55% of Brussels Airlines' parent company SN Airholding. The modalities would be defined before the end of the year to conclude the transaction at the beginning of 2017. In March 2017, Thomas Cook announced its intention to sell its Belgian flight operations,
Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium, which was shut down by November 2017 with two aircraft and all traffic rights being integrated into Brussels Airlines. Brussels Airlines took over the 160 Thomas Cook Airlines crew members. In February 2018, CEO Bernard Gustin and financial director Jan De Raeymaeker resigned after a meeting with the Lufthansa board over the airline's future. Gustin was replaced by Christina Foerster on 1 April 2018. On 1 May 2018, Dieter Vranckx joined the company as CFO. In December 2019, it was announced that Dieter Vranckx would replace Christina Foerster as CEO of Brussels Airlines effective 1 January 2020. During the
COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium, Brussels Airlines suspended all flights from 21 March through 19 April. Additionally, Brussels Airlines cancelled its wet-lease contract with
CityJet, leading to the termination of eight European destinations in the wake of the pandemic. At the end of June 2020, Brussels Airlines also announced that they were cancelling several of flights scheduled for operation in September and October 2020. Like many airlines Brussels Airlines did not refund affected customers in line with
Flight Compensation Regulation timelines during the COVID pandemic and encouraged passengers to take credit vouchers or flights on alternative dates instead. In November 2021, Brussels Airlines announced a revision of their
corporate design including a new logo. In 2022 the airline commissioned Belgian band
Hooverphonic to write a song using the airline's standard safety instructions and film a music video of it to show passengers prior to takeoff on long-haul flights. The band debuted them at a 1 August surprise performance at a
Brussels Airport gate where the airline's newest Airbus was making its first flight. "Safety is our priority but that is not a synonym for bland", said the airline's marketing director, Michel Moriaux. "I really thought it would be impossible. But at the same time, I love that kind of challenge and we went for it", said Hooverphonic's
Alex Callier. The video, whose slightly surreal imagery includes some homages to Belgian surrealist painter
René Magritte, will be shown on flights through the end of 2025. ==Corporate affairs==