Ever wondered what IT makes your flying vacation possible? Brussels Airlines’ CIO gives a unique behind-the-scenes look at the Belgian airline.
Every year, Brussels Airlines transports millions of passengers to all corners of the world. Getting all those flights organized requires complex logistical planning. From the moment you check in at the counter until you land at your destination: IT plays an invisible but crucial role in your journey. When IT fails in aviation, the world literally comes to a standstill.
The man at Brussels Airlines who helps make sure your next flight leaves when it’s supposed to leave is CIO Mark Van Geertruyen. By now, Van Geertruyen can call himself an aviation IT rookie. Distributed between Brussels Airlines and sister company Eurowings, he already has ten years of experience as an IT manager in the aviation sector. He gives us a unique insight into the IT behind your air travel.
ITdaily: What does the IT environment for which you are responsible look like broadly right now?
Van Geertruyen: “Brussels Airlines is a Belgian company, and is a member of the Lufthansa Group. That’s why we always carefully weigh which things we do locally in Belgium, and which things are best organized at group level. There are still many specific systems at Brussels Airlines that are not always compatible with those of the group. We have to maintain them and keep them up and running. We are also preparing a transition for a lot of those systems.”
“The focus in recent years has therefore been to accommodate as many operationally-critical systems as possible in the Lufthansa Group’s common cloud environment. This has many advantages for us; organizing 24/7 support and security can be done at the group level. So we are better protected against cyber attacks.”
“There are also proprietary platforms that we retain. One example is SN Digital, a platform that our crews use to prepare their flights, with specific information for Brussels Airlines flights. There is also of course traditional end-user computing, where the focus in recent years has obviously been on facilitating hybrid working and where we are currently betting on zero trust networking.”
“Brussels Airlines has a very strong presence in sub-Saharan Africa. We currently fly to 18 destinations in that region. Very often we also have our own office there in the city, and that involves more in terms of IT than, say, an office in Europe. Although we see progress in connectivity in Africa, it remains a challenge in some regions with frequent power outages, unstable connections and cable cuts. In recent years, we have therefore deployed a combination of SD WAN and various forms of connectivity through different providers.”
What are the current priorities and challenges?
Van Geertruyen: “It is a challenge to find the right balance between things that we organize at group level and certain tasks that we still want to continue to do locally. There will always be local needs, so a strong IT department within Brussels Airlines remains important.”
“For the rest, these are interesting times. We are digitizing a lot of processes. One example is the scheduling tool for our pilots and cabin crew. Creating a workable schedule with a good work/life balance is an incredibly complex puzzle. Thanks to digitization, that puzzle is not only easier to put together, but we can also respect more of the crew’s wishes. This way we ensure that people can get to their favorite destination more often or be home at times that are important to them.”
“We’re going to expand that tool even further with monitoring, where we have a better view of where our crews are at certain times. For example: when a flight is delayed, it’s best to inform our pilots and cabin crew on when they are still in their hotel, and not when they are just in the van to the airport. With digital applications like this, we can make their work much more pleasant.”
“Another ongoing priority, of course, remains cybersecurity. Here it is very useful to be a member of a large group to be really strong together. Throughout the company, digital applications can also help make certain processes more efficient. That is also a challenge for us: to do as much as possible with the resources we have.”
Are priorities understood and shared throughout the company? Are you aligned with management?
Van Geertruyen: “There I encounter fewer problems than in the past. IT is involved in many consultative bodies within Brussels Airlines. As CIO, I am a member of the extended management board, so I really do have a say in things. I also feel a lot of support from my colleagues and the other managers in the company. There is a lot of enthusiasm to work with new tools and to further professionalize our processes and make them more efficient.”
“The importance of cybersecurity has permeated all ranks of the company. There are also mandatory courses for everyone who comes to work here related to cybersecurity.”
It is helpful to be a member of a large group to be strong together in IT and security.
Mark Van Geertruyen, CIO Brussels Airlines
Do you have enough people and resources to maintain the environment and complete the challenges?
Van Geertruyen: “Thanks to being part of the larger Lufthansa Group, you have access to manpower and resources that would be inaccessible to Brussels Airlines alone. What is challenging is to attract enough colleagues. We are an airline, not a classic IT company. Aviation is also a very specific industry, its own biotope, so to speak. The number of people who have the right combination of an interest and knowledge of the aviation sector with knowledge of IT is limited.”
“So we also try to invest very extensively in the people we do have, and make sure they can develop to their full potential. A lot of our colleagues have a passion for aviation. When we invest in them, you get employees who are very attached to the company and wouldn’t want to work anywhere else.”
“A nice example: we have two pilots who started IT training during the corona crisis. They did their internship in the IT department of Brussels Airlines and developed an app for pilots themselves to help them draw up a flight plan. That app is now in full testing and the first results are promising. This kind of project, which reduces the distance between our operations and IT, makes us very excited.”
ITdaily: Is the future of your company’s IT environment in the cloud, on-premises or a combination?
Van Geertruyen: “A combination, with an emphasis on the cloud anyway. For all the applications we need in our operations, we have a strong preference for the cloud, you really have to come up with strong arguments to keep something on-premise. But of course the cloud also comes with a cost, especially for the heavier and/or legacy systems. That’s why sometimes we can still choose not to include certain things in the cloud.”
ITdaily: What impact will the impending NIS2 regulation have on policy and business?
Van Geertruyen: “We are working hard on that to see what actions are needed for us. But all in all, the impact is not that bad. Security at Brussels Airlines is already very strict. Together with Lufthansa Group, we have been imposing very strict rules on ourselves for years. So the new regulations will not lead to very big changes at our company.”
Aviation is also a very specific industry, its own biotope, so to speak.
Luchtvaart is ook een héél specifieke industrie, een eigen biotoop, zeg maar.
Mark van Geertruyen, CIO Brussels Airlines
ITdaily: How will AI impact IT policy?
Van Geertruyen: “These are the early days of AI for us as well, but it does create some opportunities. As an Office 365 customer, we have Microsoft Copilot in the Office apps and we are in the process of teaching our people to write prompts and identify use cases within their domain.”
“But there are also other opportunities. Our crews make a report at the end of a flight: in it they put, for example, feedback they received from our travelers. That feedback can be about safety, cleanliness on board, the food, punctuality, … you name it. Thanks to AI, we can also partly automate the processing of those reports and ensure that the right department gets the right feedback faster.”
“Finally, AI also offers a lot of opportunities in our contact with travelers. Both for the chatbot on our site and in telephone customer service, we can simplify a lot of processes thanks to AI.”
ITdaily: What key trends will you follow in the next three years?
Van Geertruyen: “Cybersecurity will remain very important, as will AI. Cloud we will of course also continue to follow, especially around data and BI. For the rest, we also see a lot of interesting opportunities in 5G solutions to replace radio connections. For example, we are now looking at replacing the classic walkie-talkie and wifi in our hangar with 5G solutions. Aviation never stands still, so a lot of interesting opportunities will certainly emerge.”
Aviation never stands still.
Mark Van Geertruyen, CIO Brussels Airlines