Brussels Airlines will move 15 aircraft out of its home city in order to resume flights after authorities said that Tuesday’s terrorist attacks will shut Belgium’s main hub airport until the weekend. The carrier will relocate 10 Airbus A320-series planes to Liege, 60 miles to the east, and 5 Avro RJ100 regional jets to Antwerp, 30 miles north. Its Brussels Zaventem base will stay closed through Friday. Brussels Air plans to operate 64 flights to or from its makeshift hubs Thursday and 96 Friday, and said Wednesday that the changes will stay in place until Zaventem reopens. The carrier is also sending 5 empty jets to Africa to fly out passengers stranded by the bombings. Even with the emergency schedule in place, the majority of Brussels Air’s 50 aircraft will remain grounded in the run up to Easter. <br/>
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Facing strong pushback from United Airlines’ employees, 2 United shareholders leading a revolt against the airline’s board of directors sought to clarify that they are not seeking control of United and want to see United president and CE Oscar Munoz succeed. Hedge funds Altimeter Capital Management and PAR Capital Management, which together own 7.1% of United, earlier this month announced they were nominating a slate of 6 new directors to the board of parent United Continental Holdings, most prominently including former Continental Airlines CE Gordon Bethune. The United Continental board’s non-executive chairman, Henry Meyer, said Altimeter and PAR had taken a “hostile action” that would distract from Munoz’s strategic plan for the company. <br/>
For United Airlines, it's time to batten down the hatches on the China front. Last week China Eastern Airlines became the latest China-based airline to move in on United's turf with the launch of nonstop service between China and Chicago. Now United is moving to strengthen further its ties to China and the tens of millions of potential air travellers who live there. Hainan Airlines also flies nonstop between Chicago and Beijing. China Eastern last week launched nonstop service from Chicago to Shanghai. United said Tuesday it has signed a multi-year agreement to enrich the airline's existing strategic partnership with Air China. The new deal will expand connecting flight options in the networks of both carriers in China and the US and enhance elite frequent flyer benefits for passengers traveling on either carrier. <br/>
SWISS says it expects delivery of Bombardier CSeries jets by June and expects them to be in operation on European routes by Q3. SWISS was previously announced as the launch customer for the CSeries aircraft program after Lufthansa ordered 30 CS100 aircraft. Its chief technical officer Peter Wojahn said he had confidence Bombardier had overcome its development delays and would deliver the first aircraft by June. Bombardier announced Wednesday that it had completed a series of route trials from the airline's base in Europe. The CS100 aircraft completed over 30 city-pair flights to European cities over the past 3 weeks. SWISS is buying a 110-seat model of the fuel-efficient jet to operate on short routes in Europe. <br/>