Saab’s Digital Towers Selected for Belgium

Saab Digital Air Traffic Solutions (SDATS) has been selected for a long-term framework agreement by skeyes, the Air Traffic Control organisation of Belgium, for their Digital Tower programme.

The agreement calls for a phased introduction of Digital Towers for up to six airports and three centres in Belgium. The framework agreement has a fixed part and a conditional part for a total value of just over 48 million Euro, spread over 18 years. The first phase will cover the airports of Liege and Charleroi and a centre in Namur. Delivery to skeyes will start in 2022, with initial operations to be started in 2024. Aviation is an integrated part of the infrastructure in Belgium, and the Digital Tower programme is a forward looking and innovative way of providing a sustainable service for many years to come, as well as a potential role model for Europe.

“We are proud to be trusted by skeyes to deliver SDATS’s Digital Towers and centres for their future air traffic control infrastructure. This agreement will include larger, more complex airports combined with a countrywide implementation. With our Digital Towers, Belgium’s airports and skeyes will possess new, world-class capabilities. We see skeyes as a long-term partner to further enhance our solution in the coming decade,” says Per Ahl, CEO of Saab Digital Air Traffic Solutions.

“Innovation is key at skeyes. We continually invest in improved working methods and state of art technology to maintain our high standards in air navigation services and keep air traffic at Belgian airports and in the Belgian airspace safe. This way we prepare our future role in a changing and competitive international environment. Single European Sky, unmanned air traffic and liberalisation of air navigation services are but a few challenges that lie ahead. Also in our sector, technology is one of the important drivers for change. Digital towers is a major development in air traffic navigation which skeyes fully embraces. In SDATS we have found a solid partner to deploy our digital tower project, starting at Namur for the airports of Liege and Charleroi,” says Johan Decuyper, CEO skeyes.

SDATS’s digital air traffic control solution is a breakthrough in air traffic control and was introduced during 2015 in Sweden, and has been followed up by others including at Cranfield, London City Airport, in Stockholm with a new Digital Tower centre, and later in 2022 by a Digital Tower centre at Schiphol.  

skeyes is a leading and an innovating Air Navigation Service Provider. Saab Digital Air Traffic Solutions AB was formed 2016 as a joint venture between Saab and the Swedish Air Navigation Service Provider (LFV). By combining LFV's unique operational experience with Saab's world-class technical solutions, Saab Digital Air Traffic Solutions can manage the entire process from planning and implementation to the administration of air traffic control services. As a provider of both the technology and air traffic control services, the company offers new and sophisticated digital services to airports in Sweden and abroad.