Flights to Brussels lunched by EVA Airways

EVA Airways Corp., one of Taiwan's leading international carriers, may launch flights to Brussels, French-language newspaper Les Echos reported Monday.Citing EVA Airways President James Jeng, Les Echos said that if the carrier decides to add new routes to Europe, Brussels will be one of the possible destinations.In the report, Hawk Chang, the general manager of EVA Airways' branch in Belgium, said the carrier is paying considerable attention to Brussels as a possible destination as it assesses the feasibility of launching new flights to Europe.

Belgium's authorities have expressed a lot of interest in EVA Airways' possibly adding Brussels to its European network, he said.Chang said EVA Airways has already extended service to Brussels by launching a free shuttle bus service for its passengers between Amsterdam and the Belgian capital two weeks ago.The free shuttle bus service has worked very well so far, Chang indicated, and he said that when demand for the shuttle increases to a certain extent, the carrier will likely launch new flights to Brussels.EVA Airways was not immediately available for comment on the report.

At present, EVA Airways provides 16 round trip flights to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Vienna a week.The report said EVA Airways suffered heavy losses in 2008 and 2009 as the world's airline business was hard hit by a global financial meltdown.However, the report said, the carrier is making a comeback and is expected to turn a profit in 2010 amid a global economy recovery.EVA Airways posted a net loss of NT$2.84 billion (US$89.49 million) in 2009, after a net loss of NT$16.89 billion recorded in 2008. In the first half of this year, however, the carrier registered NT$5.22 billion in net profit.Jeng said the carrier is anticipating that cross-Taiwan Strait routes will generate more profit and further boost its profitability amid warming business ties between Taiwan and ChinaEVA Airways offers 61 round-trip flights to 15 destinations in China a week. The carrier said the average load factor of the flights to Chinese cities exceeds 85 percent.