The planes have come to the end of their lease contract and will be replaced in the spring. The company blamed the drop in demand for flights to Greece and Portugal as a result of the economic situation in those countries. The losses, meanwhile, are largely due to the increase in fuel prices, the company said.

Unions representing Brussels Airlines staff have warned of possible strike actions in the week of 21 November if their questions concerning purchasing power and flight schedules are not answered. These issues are holding up a new pay agreement. “We are not being inflexible,” a union representative said. “We are giving the company time to reply.”

But not all is cuts and cancellations: Brussels Airlines will start flights to the US in June next year and in the summer season will add a new plane to its fleet serving destinations in Africa.

Meanwhile, former members of the staff of Sabena, the national airline that went broke in 2001, gathered in Brussels National Airport last week to mark the 10th anniversary of the airline’s closure.

The company’s bankruptcy, which allegedly was purposefully caused by its Swiss majority owners, led to the loss of 7,000 jobs. According to Christoph Müller, the last CEO of Sabena, the airline was its industry’s equivalent of Lehmann Brothers: “The proof that no single company is too big to fail.