Brussels Airport launches blockchain application

June 14, 2018: Brussels Airport announced the launch of its first application using blockchain technology, strengthening their frontrunner position in digital innovation in the air cargo industry. During the Air China Cargo exhibition in Shanghai last month, Brussels Airport and their cargo community won the award for ‘IT solution of the year’ with BRUcloud. BRUcloud is an open data sharing platform based on Nallian’s data technology on which different applications can be build.

BRUcloud is the open data sharing platform for the BRUcargo community launched in 2016. “It enables the different stakeholders of the air cargo supply chain to work more integrated and act as a network. Data will be stored only once, centrally. Once a company is connected to the cloud, it can start using the different existing applications and can start exchanging information very easily with other stakeholders instead of maintaining system-to-system connections with all different partners individually”, explained Sara Van Gelder, cargo business development manager, Brussels Airport.

This new application using blockchain technology is a next step in the “Landsite Management tool”, which Brussels Airport is developing together with its stakeholders at BRUcargo. The app will closely cooperate with already existing apps such as the slot booking app, or future to be developed apps. Focus of this next phase is on making the import process paperless, more efficient and transparent. It fully contributes to the Brussels Airport strategic objective to have a digitalised logistical flow in place supported by a combination of applications offered via the BRUcloud platform.

“The new Freight Management App 1.0 will replace the handover of cargo from handlers to forwarder from a paper-based process by a digital rights / release process,” said Steven Polmans, head of cargo & logistics at Brussels Airport and Chairman of the community organisation Air Cargo Belgium. “The support of all our stakeholders, from gathering ideas to implementing new tools and applications, is crucial in the success of our BRUcloud platform.”

One of the companies supporting the development of the BRUcloud at Brussels Airport from the beginning is DHL Global Forwarding. They are very active in the different working groups of Air Cargo Belgium but also as a company very much involved.

Another strong supporter is ground handler WFS. Marc Claesen, regional vice president, commented, “WFS Belgium is a proud early participant of the BRUcloud project at Brussels, initiated by Brussels Airport. For WFS, this is the way forward in a rapidly changing industry, whereby expectations from stakeholders will only be met in the future by those companies who believe in modernization and industry data sharing. We are glad to be an early adaptor of this unique tool and platform and believe that this is only the start of a very promising development whereby the cargo industry as a whole will benefit, with Brussels taking a leading pioneer role.”