Wallonia | Business opportunities | Aerospace industry

Belgium has a privileged position in Europe as the aeronautics companies have been and are working on a wide range of programmes such as Airbus, Boeing, the military F-16 and Airbus A400M carrier. Wallonia represents 70% of the Belgian aeronautics industry.

Furthermore, Belgium is 5th European country in terms of Space budget with160 M€ in 2007.

Providing 7000 jobs and generating a cumulated turnover of 1,25 billion Euro in 2007, the aeronautics and space industry plays a key role in developing and diversifying Wallonia’s industrial landscape. 

No less than 80 departments in 4 universities and training facilities such as the WAN and Technifutur in Wallonia contribute to the progress of the aerospace activity. With education and research being at the forefront of the industry, the future of aerospace industry is looking bright.

An offshoot of the University’s astrophysics and geophysics institute, the Liège space centre (CSL) is one of the world’s most well known laboratories. It can register patents, buy licenses, and participate in the creation of spin-offs with the help of Wallonia Space Logistics (WSL), an incubator set up by the Wallonia Region. The aim of this company is to promote and consolidate the position of new high-tech companies in Wallonia.

Click here to download the presentation brochure for the SMBs supported by WSL (3.5Mb).

Skywin, was the first pole of competitiveness to emerge in Wallonia, it has defined three focus areas for development:

The companies, the universities and the research centres are regrouped under the aeronautical cluster EWA and the space cluster Wallonie Espace.

Belgium Satellite Services was created in November 2007 by ORG Informatics, India. This newly created entity has bought some of Belgacom’s assets to develop the business of:
- satellite TV broadcast
- satellite Internet
- satellite Telephone

WSLlux is a subsidiary of WSL, the space incubator in Liège. With the collaboration of the development agency IDELUX of the province of Luxemburg in Wallonia, this entity will host innovative companies in two buildings totalling 1800 square metres.
This new space incubator at Transinne will see the light, a few kilometres away from the ESA Redu space station and close to the EuroSpace Centre (space museum)

WSLlux won the EuroLeaders prize in June 2008 for the best incubator in the category “Bringing Space & Sat technologies down to earth”, in front of the French and the British.
3 space applications are covered:

airports

To help the industry thrive, two airports exist in the Region: Brussels South Charleroi Airport with its strong hold on low cost passenger travel and Liège Airport which is known for its cargo expertise and holiday passenger destinations.

BSCA (Brussels South Charleroi Airport) is a daytime-only regional airport specializing in lowcost flights to European destinations . It plays an important role in the Wallonia Regional transport network.

In 2007 it handled 2,4 passengers with 47 destinations throughout Europe. Growing at an ever-increasing pace, BSCA will shortly open a brand-new facility with the capacity to handle 5 million passengers.

Liège Airport is situated at the centre of the European airfreight triangle (Paris, Amsterdam, Frankfurt). It is the first airport to focus its development strategy on freight, supported by passenger charters and regular low-cost flights.
With 400,000 tonnes, liege airport’s cracked the top ten of European cargo airports. This growth has mainly been due to activities of 15 cargo airlines based on the site, including TNT, Cargo airlines, Kalitta, EL AL and Icelandair.

Passenger figures are also a record, with 332,848 passengers transiting via liege in 2007, which is explained by the increased number of flights operated by thomas Cook, Jetair and Belle Air.

Your contact for more information on the sector

M. Ashley Lyon Aeronautics & Space Expert Tel.: +32 81 33 28 76 Fax : +32 81 33 28 69 E-mail: alyon@investinwallonia.be