Brussels Airlines has unveiled a newly themed aircraft. Its Airbus A320 is fully dedicated to the Atomium, the iconic Brussels monument with nine spheres. The design was created through a design competition and was made by the Walloon architect Thomas Faes.
The official unveiling took place on Wednesday. Dorothea von Boxberg, CEO of Brussels Airlines, indicated that the choice was not easy, but ultimately felt logical. ‘There have long been subtle references to the Atomium in our identity, such as the nine spheres of our logo,’ she explained.
The aircraft, named “Atomium,” made its first commercial flight on Thursday march 27. It departed from Brussels Airport in the morning and flew to its destination Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.
With the introduction of this aircraft, Brussels Airlines’ “Belgian Icons” fleet gets a new member. Previously, the Tintin aircraft “Rackham,” the Tomorrowland-themed aircraft “Amare,” and “Trident,” the official aircraft of the Red Devils and the Red Flames, had already appeared. The airline will add a fifth livery in November of this year as well.
The Atomium was originally built for the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels and represents a greatly enlarged iron crystal. In 2024, the monument attracted a record number of visitors: more than 844,000 people visited the sphere construction.