Brussels Airport becomes 50 percent shareholder in SkeyDrone
Over the past year, Brussels Airport has worked closely with skeyes and SkeyDrone on various drone projects in fields such as intrusion detection, aerodrome safety, operational efficiency, etc.
Brussels Airport Company and skeyes signed an agreement where Brussels Airport will become a 50 percent shareholder in SkeyDrone, a subsidiary of skeyes. SkeyDrone offers a range of services that enable safe and efficient drone operations. With this acquisition, Brussels Airport intends to play an active role in the drone technology developments and in the provision of drone services to various industries in Belgium and abroad.
Over the past year, Brussels Airport has worked closely with skeyes and SkeyDrone on various drone projects in fields such as intrusion detection, aerodrome safety, operational efficiency, etc.
“Brussels Airport’s investment in SkeyDrone is strategic and goes beyond investing in drone know-how and technology. It is an investment in co-creating the future of unmanned air traffic together with 2 key players in this field, skeyes and SkeyDrone. With SkeyDrone, we can fully explore, develop and commercialise drone management systems and drone services that can be used on a daily basis by clients in various industries,” says Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company.
Johan Decuyper, Hendrik-Jan Van Der Gucht and Arnaud Feist
Currently a 100 percent subsidiary of skeyes, SkeyDrone offers positioning, navigation, guidance and data analysis services for unmanned aircraft in Belgium and abroad.
“Drones are becoming omnipresent in the airspace. It is our task to let them take their place safely among the existing air traffic. As users of the airspace, airports know better than anyone the challenges this brings. skeyes and SkeyDrone therefore attach great importance to Brussels Airport Company's insights into developments concerning drones and the needs of airports to deal with this new reality. By participating in SkeyDrone, we can now count on their direct input. skeyes has set up these kinds of partnerships for several areas of its operation, fully in line with our strategy,” says Johan Decuyper, CEO of skeyes.
Brussels Airport’s ambition is to play a leading role together with skeyes and SkeyDrone in developing and applying innovative uses of drones. By sharing knowledge, expertise and aviation experience, Brussels Airport also intends to support SkeyDrone’s future growth ambitions.
“This capital increase comes at the right time and further strengthens our ambitions to play a central role in the European drone eco-system with a view to further activating the drone sector and implementing U-space in 2023,” says Hendrik-Jan Van Der Gucht, managing director of SkeyDrone.
The transaction is subject to approval by the relevant competition authorities and is expected to be completed early 2022.
