Brussels Airlines narrow down their next Belgian Icon to five designs

It’s amazing how you can engage travellers – with Brussels Airlines polling its passengers for the Airline’s next Belgian Icon. 

The airline received over 50,000 votes for the next Belgian Icon. The five designs with the most votes have been presented to a jury that selected the final winner who will be announced early November.

The votes followed on from the design contest, where everyone with a Belgian nationality or living in Belgium could submit a design for the next Belgian Icon. The airline received no less than 900 designs. An internal jury selected 15 finalists. Between October 4 and October 11, everyone could vote for their favourite design.

The five most popular designs are (in random order): Lucky Luke, the Atomium, Cycling, Poppies and Shrimp Fishers.

Onto the Jury

A jury of ten was selected to make the final choice for the airline. They include

• Sandra Kim, who won the Eurovision Song Contest for Belgium in 1986,
• Alex Callier, from Hooverphonic, the band that made the iconic safety video for Brussels Airlines,
• Philippe Geluck, from the well-known ‘Le Chat’ cartoons,
• Michèle George, who won two gold medals during the Paralympic games in Paris 2024
• Sandrine Corman, former miss Belgium and TV Host,
• Gabrielle Szwarcenberg, the designer of the Brussels Airlines uniforms,
• Elisia Poelman, painter, and Griet Aesaert, who has her own label of designer handbags, and both created the amenity kits
• Brussels Airlines CEO Dorothea von Boxberg and Michel Moriaux, Head of Marketing.

Brussels Airlines will reveal the winner on November 5.

In Quotes

On the voting process,  Michel Moriaux, Head of Marketing, at Brussels Airlines said

“We are pleased to see so many people cast their vote. It’s clear that the Belgian Icon contest was ‘the talk of the town’ in Belgium. As the Belgian home carrier, we want to proudly present our country to the world, and our Belgian Icons play an important part in that strategy. The design contest challenged people in Belgium to reflect on what makes us proud and who we are as a nation. We’re glad to have sparked that discussion.”

On the choice of the finalist, he added.

“We’ve shown all the designs to the entire jury and had a very interesting debate. Afterwards, each jury member could vote individually for their favorite design. The jury was not informed about the number of votes the designs got during the contest last week, to give all five designs an equal chance. It was not an easy decision as all designs in the final five are very impressive and could be great Belgian Icons.”

Bringing forward the Belgian Icons

Brussels Airlines’ first Belgian Icon, Rackham, was introduced in 2015 and pays tribute to Tintin, the world-famous Belgian comic. Earlier this year, Amare was presented to the world which is the most recent Belgian Icon in cooperation with the music festival Tomorrowland. The third Belgian Icon currently in the fleet is Trident, the official plane of the Belgian Red Devils and Red Flames, respectively the male and female national football teams.

There were others previously, including:

• Magritte was part of the fleet between 2016 and 2021. The aircraft was a homage to René Magritte, the Belgian surrealistic painter.
• Aerosmurf smurfed the fleet between 2018 and 2023. This plane also took shape during a design contest organized by Brussels Airlines. Economy Class and Beyond covered the unique passenger experience this had.
• Flemish painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder, a Belgian icon from the 16th century, travelled the world between 2019 and 2023.