Brussels Airport Company signs innovation partnership with PlugandPlay

Today Brussels Airport announces a partnership with PlugandPlay as anchor partner of the PlugandPlay Travel & Hospitality programme in Europe together with Vienna Airport, Star Alliance and Swissport. PlugandPlay is a global open innovation platform enabling, moderating and facilitating the collaboration between big and established corporations from the industry and start-ups. With this collaboration, Brussels Airport Company wants to drive open innovation within the Brussels Airport ecosystem and position itself as a key player in the Innovation for Aviation in Belgium and Europe.

As an innovative company, Brussels Airport understands the potential to engage in open innovation through co-creation and partnering. To maximize the benefit for its customers, Brussels Airport wants to engage in and structure initiatives to fully leverage the potential of the exciting period we are living in. At present, there is a unique opportunity to build and activate the wider airport ecosystem with all its partners, with Brussels Airport Company as a digital host and facilitator of open innovation therein.

To boost the innovation programme, Brussels Airport Company has decided to team up with a world player in innovation facilitation. PlugandPlay is working on a global scale and is present in 5 continents. They run 50+ accelerator programs each year providing innovation for more than 300 major corporations. PlugandPlay invested in 2018 in 220 start-ups, 120 which are based in US, other investments in the Asian, European and Latin-American market. Importantly, PlugandPlay’s focus on the travel sector makes this a most relevant proposition considering Brussels Airport Company’s corporate venturing ambitions.

“We are delighted to announce our innovation partnership with PlugandPlay. This partnership is a clear sign of Brussels Airport’s ambition to continuously improve and innovate in order to deliver the best services to its clients, passengers and airlines. This will give us continuous access to the latest developments in all areas of aviation/airport business,” explains Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company.

Brussels Airport Company joins an innovation platform dedicated to travel, unique in Europe, with more than 30 worldwide partners in the travel sector, such as airports, airlines, hotels, travel agencies… PlugandPlay Travel & Hospitality Europe is an open innovation platform moderating an in-depth and curated collaboration between core
partners from the industry, investment firms and mentors to help the growth of start-up companies. Together, Brussels Airport and PlugandPlay aim to create a seamless end-to-end travel experience for the more than 25 million passengers travelling through the airport every year.

“We are very excited about expanding Plug and Play’s travel and hospitality program into European Markets. We made this decision based on strong demand from existing travel related corporate partners with European HQs as well as new corporate partners such as Brussels airport. European travel startup ecosystem is growing rapidly and there is no shortage of travel suppliers, airports and service providers who can benefit from our open innovation platform”, Amir Amidi, Managing Partner at Plug and Play.

Brussels Airport, 19 June 2019