A group of Hong Kong investors is backing start-up Air Belgium, the South China Morning Post reports. The low-cost airline plans to launch flights from Brussels South (Charleroi) to Hong Kong starting on March 25. In an exclusive interview with the South China Morning Post, Air Belgium Chief Executive Niky Terzakis remained cautious about success. “It is no secret, operating an airline in Europe is a complicated thing. Usually it is airlines that need the money,” he said. The recent demise of three European airlines – Italy’s Alitalia, UK leisure operator Monarch and Germany’s Air Berlin – highlighted the volatility of the business.

Terzakis gave little away about his Hong Kong backers, who control a 49% stake, saying only that they were “not airline people”. Details of the investors would be in the “public record very soon” and the majority shareholding was “in Belgium and Europe”, he added. The airline will face competition from Brussels Airlines, which was placed under Lufthansa’s low-cost long-haul unit.

“Let’s be fair, we are a niche player. The advantage we have is a clean sheet of paper. Now the legacy airlines are highly competitive in some aspects and many are creating low-cost airlines,” Terzakis said. The airline would start flying initially with four second-hand Airbus A340-300 aircraft. Air Belgium is still waiting for permission from authorities to start flights. One handicap is that it does not have short-haul flights to fill up seats on its long-haul flights.

“It’s difficult to tell whether Air Belgium’s strategy is financially sustainable,” said Achim Czerny, Associate Professor in Aviation Management at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University (PolyU). “The airline business is risky and there is certainly no guarantee that they will survive.” As there are only five Asian destinations serviced from Belgium, the airline saw a gap in the market. But Henri Hie, another Aviation Professor at PolyU, doubted whether a low-cost start-up could succeed, particularly with home-grown Chinese airlines already launching cut-price flights to Europe. Travel intelligence company Forward Keys revealed that there would be at least 30 new China-Europe flights per week by June.