Brussels Airlines partners with controversial Uber

Brussels Airlines this week launched a marketing campaign around its new b.gift, a holiday gift certificate good for a flight within Europe for up to four people. Each b.gift comes with a voucher worth €15 towards the cost of post-flight transport, to be used in conjuction with ride-share app Uber, a taxi service that has recently been banned in Belgium for creating unfair competition for officially registered taxi drivers.

It is the third year in a row that the airline runs a similar campaign around the holidays. But it is the first year that Brussels Airlines partners with the controversial taxi app Uber, which is not legal in Belgium.

"There is indeed a debate going on in Belgium about the legality of Uber," Brussels Airlines spokesman Geert Sciot told brusselnieuws.be. "But our campaign is not aimed at people who want to take a taxi from Brussels Airport. It is in fact aimed at Belgians flying to one of 32 selected European destinations. In the vast majority of these destinations Uber is still legal, except for Berlin, but that is rather an exception."