Brussels Airlines to expand Africa service; end Mumbai flights in 2019

Lufthansa Group subsidiary Brussels Airlines is making changes to its long-haul network, reinforcing its presence in Africa as it ends flights to Mumbai, India for economic reasons and refocuses the capacity on its core intercontinental region of Africa. As of next year, Brussels Airlines will add three extra flights per week to Banjul, Gambia, taking it to a daily service and will operate three out of seven weekly frequencies to Dakar, Senegal as a direct flight from Jan. 7. The carrier will stop flying to and from Mumbai, India, from Jan. 6, with customers still able to connect to the destination via Frankfurt and Munich, Germany and Zurich, Switzerland with partners Lufthansa and Swiss International Air Lines, it said. The carrier began serving Mumbai in March 2017 but said “the route does not deliver the anticipated results.” Customers who had already booked flights after Jan. 6 are being offered alternative travel solutions. The carrier, which announced a short- and medium-haul network expansion over the summer, also said it was adding two further year-round short-haul destinations—4X-weekly to Kiev (Ukraine) service from October and a 3X-weekly service to Wroclaw (Poland) from February.<br/>