
Brussels Airport becomes the majority shareholder of Jetpack, a company specialising in big data and artificial intelligence
Today, Brussels Airport Company has acquired a majority stake (80%) in Jetpack, a young Belgian company specialising in data analysis and artificial intelligence. Jetpack transforms data into information by combining data science and artificial intelligence to improve business processes and accelerate innovation. Thanks to this participation, Brussels Airport is expanding its expertise in big data and artificial intelligence, enabling it to optimise its performance and offer even more differentiated services to its passengers. Jetpack will continue the development of its activities independently and will create a new competence and innovation centre that focuses on the aviation industry.
Brussels Airport Company receives and generates large amounts of data through its activities. This data has been used for many years to optimise operational processes (baggage, screening, check-in, etc.) by making predictions about the various operations within the airport. One example is the creation a few years ago of the Airport Operations Plan which, thanks to the waiting-time forecasts, makes it possible to optimise passenger and luggage flows. This acquisition of Jetpack, with whom Brussels Airport Company has already been working for several years, will make it possible to take the use of data even further.
‘Brussels Airport’s investment in Jetpack fits in perfectly with our strategy of continuous improvement of our operational and commercial performance to serve our customers even better. The optimisation of our processes requires the real-time analysis of a large amount of data and the making of forecasts based on the increased use of artificial intelligence. Thanks to Jetpack, we will accelerate our developments in this field. Jetpack will continue to serve all its customers and develop solutions for different industries. We look forward to collaborating with the entire Jetpack team that will help us stay relevant in an ever-changing digital environment,” said Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company.
A young and dynamic company
Created in 2017 and based in Brussels, Jetpack now employs around fifteen people and specialises in data processing and artificial intelligence. Brussels Airport Company has today acquired a majority stake in Jetpack, the founding members remaining minority shareholders. Jetpack will continue to operate and grow independently, with its own customers – but will create a competence and innovation centre dedicated to the aviation sector.
‘All Jetpack co-founders are very pleased to have found in Brussels Airport a partner for innovation and growth. Jetpack will continue to serve and grow its customer portfolio independently. Thanks to this privileged bond with Brussels Airport, which provides us with a formidable field of multi-industry development, we will be able to accelerate the development of innovative solutions for all our customers,” said Raphaël Krings, co-founder of Jetpack.
About Brussels Airport
Brussels Airport is one of the most important airports in Europe. In 2021 the airport welcomed 9.4 million passengers, compared to 26.4 million passengers in 2019. The airport also has an important cargo activity with more than 843,000 tonnes of cargo transported in 2021. Brussels Airport caters for the specific needs of business travellers and holidaymakers alike, on intra-European as well as long haul flights. In 2022, it offers direct connections to more than 200 destinations.
The airport also offers a leading cargo platform, specialised in the transport of pharmaceutical products, perishable goods, e-commerce and live animals. Brussels Airport is the most important pharmaceutical hub in Europe with the largest surface of temperature-controlled warehouses, thus supporting the global fight against Covid-19.
Brussels Airport is the second most important economic growth pool in Belgium, good for 24,000 direct and 40,000 indirect jobs and is operated by Brussels Airport Company. Its shareholders are the Belgian State (25%) and a consortium of private investors (75%). Follow Brussels Airport on Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram and Facebook.
About Jetpack
Jetpack is a Brussels company developing tailor-made data analysis software solutions for clients from diverse sectors, such as commerce, infrastructure and networks, finance, health or public services, established in Belgium and abroad.
With a team entirely based in Brussels but already comprising 7 nationalities, Jetpack is composed of experts in the fields of data engineering, data science, software development and data visualisation.
Jetpack specialises in creating solutions that make data available to users, with the primary goal of extracting information that will be easy to use, even while data environments are becoming increasingly rich and complex.
Follow Jetpack.AI on Linkedin and Twitter