It is with great pleasure that I present to you the skeyes annual report of 2024, a year marked by remarkable progress and continued dedication to our mission. As the CEO of skeyes, I am especially proud of what our team has achieved and the direction we have set for the future.
The year 2023 was notable in many ways. It was a milestone for us because of our 25th anniversary. In a quarter of a century, we have evolved from Belgocontrol to skeyes, a financially sound and autonomous public company with an unwavering commitment to flight safety and operational reliability. Our journey so far has been one of continuous evolution, adapted to the changing technological landscapes and the needs of the aviation industry, with the determination to make it more sustainable in the long run.
In terms of technology, we have made significant progress, particularly with our digital tower project. In SOWAER, we found a reliable partner. With the installation of the antenna mast at Liege airport and the upcoming construction of a state-of-the-art control centre in Namur, the project is approaching the realisation phase. It’s a first of its kind. By the end of 2026, skeyes will be the first in the world to manage the traffic flows of two medium-sized airports from a combined decentralised air traffic control centre. In the meantime, we are also looking in Flanders for a suitable location for a digital control centre so that we can demonstrate our know-how in this field there as well.
Among other things due to our leadership role in the BURDI project, skeyes is paving the way for economically relevant unmanned aviation, we are contributing to the development of the regulatory framework at the European level and we are getting ready to assume the role of Common Information Service Provider. The task of the latter is to form the link for safely integrating manned and unmanned aviation. We also concluded a cooperation agreement with the Provincial Development Agency of West Flanders to develop the deployment of drones over the North Sea in the near future.
to receive the prestigious CANSO GreenATM quality label, an acknowledgement of our efforts regarding sustainability and its impact on the operations of our customers, the airlines.
This annual report obviously provides an overview of the financial situation. Our performance remains solid. We are once again successfully building on the excellent results of the last few years. The current budgetary situation offers a certain margin to invest in equipment and talent to strengthen our operational capacities.
The decision was made to upgrade the navigation management system with the most modern technology by 2028, which means that within a few years, skeyes will have the reliable hardware and software that will put us at the forefront of safety and punctuality for the coming decades.
This pursuit of the highest level of aviation safety can already be seen today from the reports on our operations. For the second year in a row, skeyes was able to end the year without any serious incident compromising air or ground safety. This is a testament to the commitment of staff to safety. It also demonstrates the effectiveness of our 'Just Culture' approach to raising awareness among staff to report safety incidents more quickly so that we can coordinate procedures even better.
In terms of punctuality, skeyes is also among the best. 99% of the flights we guided arrived and departed on time. With a generated overall en-route delay of 0.09 minutes per flight, we score considerably better than our fellow air traffic controllers in FABEC.
skeyes attaches great importance to partnerships and collaborations with universities, research institutes and innovative companies. In this way, we keep our finger on the pulse of the latest technologies in the field of manned and unmanned aviation, and we also hope to promote the influx of young talent into aviation professions and thus influence the shortage in the labour market.
The work is never finished. That’s why skeyes will roll out its new management contract in 2024 designed to ensure sound funding, aiming for proper remuneration for the services we provide and giving our company breathing space to grow both in innovative technologies and in human capital.
