Belgian air navigation service provider ‘skeyes’ gets state aid following the Covid-19 pandemic

On the proposal of François Bellot, the Belgian Minister in charge of skeyes, the Council of Ministers took a series of decisions following the health crisis due to Covid-19.

Following the crisis, skeyes faces a very significant reduction in its volume of activities which will generate a significant cash deficit. Current estimates indicate that cash flow will be exhausted in the fourth quarter of 2020. State financial assistance is required from July 2020 to maintain a sufficient cash flow to keep the public enterprise running smoothly.

The Council of Ministers therefore approved:

• the advance payment of the part of the terminal fees payable by the federal state in 2020 (approximately 15 million euros) up to the amount budgeted by the state for the year 2020
• a grant to skeyes of 45 million euros, including 20 million euros reimbursable, to ensure the operational and financial sustainability of the public enterprise in 2020 and to ensure the payment of the Belgian State contribution to Eurocontrol
• the text of the draft amendment to the third management contract concluded on April 11, 2014, between the State and skeyes, so that it can be presented to the joint committee and the skeyes Board of Directors

Source: Belgian Prime Minister’s Office