Message from the CEO
Excelling in partnership
Once again, this Annual Report contains a great many interesting figures and data, but for skeyes, those concerning safety are always very important. Ensuring the safety of all air traffic is and remains our primary mission and concern, and that of all our employees. The fact that we can once again present excellent results in this area is because everyone at skeyes is extremely aware of the importance of safety and pays attention to it day in and day out in all aspects of our operations.
In addition, we continue to invest in our infrastructure to improve our operational services further. Last year, among other things, work began to renew our radio sites across the whole Belgian territory and new weather prediction systems were also installed. These are less visible but equally indispensable links in our activities that lead to efficient and safe air traffic management. It is the collaboration between our technical staff, the people in the support services who provide meteorological and other aviation information, and our air traffic controllers who make skeyes the high-performance and customer-oriented company it is today.
But of course, the work is never finished. This Annual Report also provides you with an overview of the progress we are making with the various future-oriented projects on which we are working. Developments in aviation and air safety take time because they are complex and often technological in nature, but must above all always guarantee maximum safety.
skeyes remains a frequently requested partner for pilot projects involving drones. We are happy to share the expertise that we have been building up in this sector for many years with entrepreneurs and institutions that want to test their projects in practice. In 2022, we participated in projects of Helicus and Port of Antwerp, among others. We took a leading role in BURDI, an EU-supported project to manage intensive drone traffic in and around large urban environments, international airports or port areas. The results in terms of safety, economic feasibility, sustainability and social acceptance serve as an example for developing U-spaces throughout Europe in the longer term.
Brussels Airport joined SkeyDrone, skeyes’ subsidiary, as a partner last year.
The project on the first digital tower in Belgium took concrete shape last year. At the site in Steenokkerzeel, all air traffic controllers were able to become acquainted with their future working environment in a test environment with recorded images. Still this year, a simulator will be installed that will work with live images from the camera infrastructure at the airports. The last step is the one to the digital tower in Namur itself. To this end, SOWAER is starting with the construction of the building on their site.
As agreed with the various authorities and the sector, skeyes invested in new technology that minimises the impact of wind turbines on our (radar) systems as much as possible in order to free up even more space to install wind turbines. Together with our Defence colleagues, we continue to follow developments closely in this area. Last year, skeyes held a round table with the entire industry. We discussed how we can further strengthen each other in the development of the wind farm stock in Belgium.
We also continue to promote and apply sustainable applications in other areas of our operations and our internal operations, either alone or in collaboration with other partners. In 2022, under the umbrella of Stargate – an international consortium of 21 stakeholders in the aviation sector, including skeyes – some 30 concrete projects were developed to make aviation and airports greener and more sustainable. Stargate works within the framework of the European Green Deal.
In June of last year, the renewed Executive Committee took office. It was the impetus to redistribute the powers within that body, to integrate additional skills and from there to rethink the organisation of skeyes. In this way, we arrived at a new structure that is better adapted to the changed (and still changing) environment in which skeyes operates and which deploys the right people, knowledge and skills in the right places. skeyes will become a centre of excellence in air traffic control, both in Belgium and at European level, where we are also becoming increasingly prominent in international partnerships.
The above is just a selection of the many initiatives you will discover further on in this Annual Report. It already shows that skeyes remains a dynamic, ambitious and future-oriented company and a partner for all our customers and all our employees.