Brussels Ariways New Service from Washington Dulles (IAD)

HT Lufthansa Traveler

Brussels Airways is launching service between Washington Dulles (IAD) and Brussels (BRU) staring June 18. According to their website, they "will operate " will operate 5 weekly flights to Washington. The flights will be operated with Airbus A330 aircraft, so passengers can enjoy full flat beds in Business Class and a state of the art in-flight entertainment system in both Business & Economy Class. Flight SN 515 will be departing in Brussels at 17h30, and arriving in Washington Dulles at 20h 15 local time. SN 516 from Washington to Brussels will be departing at 22h35 and arriving at 12h 10."

This is very exiting because as they state on their website, "their passion is Africa," making award travel to Africa more readily available. Brussels Airways flies to 20 African countries and 23 African cities, currently. Combine this with Turkish Airways recent push for more African destinations, the Star Alliance is making trips to Africa easier to get to from the United States.

I took Brussels Airways to Ouagadouou, Burkino Faso, last year, as a jumping point to my trip to Niger. The flight was a two class flight (business and economy) on their older recline seats:

The food was amazing on my flight:

The IFE (Inflight Entertainment System) system was old. It was on a loop, so you could not stop and go as you please. Also, the sound did not work on my system. It would go for a few minutes and then cut off for a few minutes. Hopefully the new IFE is better than this:

However, last year, they started upgrading their entire fleet to a "lay flat" seat. It took some searching, but you can learn about Business Class here and their new flat beds here:



Taken from their website

The seat reminds me of the seats on ANA's Dreamliner:

The seat, when put into the bed position, felt like a coffin.  The place where you placed your feet is under the IFE unit, and does not provide much space. Hopefully, Brussels Airways new product is better, but early reports, on the new product, confirm my suspicion.

I may have to add a trip on this new route, in the future.