Brussels Airport announced today its partnership with global innovation platform, Plug and Play. They will work with Plug and Play’s newest Travel & Hospitality program in Europe, which is scheduled to officially open in September this year. Brussels Airport joins alongside existing Plug and Play Travel’s corporate partners in Europe, including Vienna International Airport, Star Alliance, Swissport, etc.
“We are delighted to announce our innovation partnership with Plug and Play. 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.
Plug and Play’s Travel & Hospitality program launched in Silicon Valley in 2016 and has expanded to four new locations including Vienna, Abu Dhabi, Shanghai, and Singapore. To this date, the Travel program has 30 corporate partners across sectors such as airports, hotels, online travel agencies, and travel management companies.
Brussels Airport will get access to the biggest Travel hub in Europe which will provide them with in depth and curated collaboration with startups and other travel industry leaders. Brussels Airport will play an active role in Plug and Play’s ecosystem worldwide and will contribute to the technology focus areas of Plug and Play’s Travel & Hospitality platform in Europe.
Through its collaboration with Plug and Play, Brussels Airport will gain immediate access to the largest corporate innovation platform in the world, comprised of promising early and late stage startups from around the globe, bringing product, process and business model innovation to the travel and hospitality industry. As an official partner of Plug and Play’s open innovation ecosystem, Brussels Airport will share insights and draw inspiration through collaboration with renowned corporations from various industries. Together, Brussels Airport and Plug and Play aim to create a seamless end-to-end travel experience for the 25+ million passengers traveling through their airport a year and be at the forefront of bringing digital transformation to airports around the world.
“We are very excited about expanding Plug and Play’s Travel & Hospitality program into European travel market. 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. The 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,” says Amir Amidi, Managing Partner at Plug and Play, Travel & Hospitality.
For more information about Plug and Play Travel & Hospitality, please visit: https://www.plugandplaytechcenter.com/travel/
About Brussels Airport
Brussels Airport is one of the largest airports in Europe, handling 25,7 million passengers and 732,000 tons of freight annually. Brussels Airport links the European capital with 248 passenger and cargo destinations worldwide that are served by 80 different airlines. (figures 2018). Brussels Airport caters for the specific needs of the business travelers, and also has the largest low-fare offer in Belgium.
Brussels Airport is the second most important center of economic growth in Belgium providing direct and indirect employment for 60,000 people. Brussels Airport is operated by Brussels Airport Company. The shareholders are the Belgian State (25 percent) and a consortium of private investors (75 percent). Follow us @brusselsairport on Twitter or on www.facebook.com/brusselsairport
About Plug and Play
Plug and Play is a global innovation platform. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we have built accelerator programs, corporate innovation services, and an in-house VC to make technological advancement progress faster than ever before. Since inception in 2006, our programs have expanded worldwide to include a presence in over 29 locations globally giving startups the necessary resources to succeed in Silicon Valley and beyond. With over 14,000 startups and 300 official corporate partners, we have created the ultimate startup ecosystem in many industries, including Travel & Hospitality. We currently work with JetBlue Technology Ventures, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Accor Hotels, AirAsia, Swissport, Star Alliance, Trivago, Delta Air Lines, Changi Airport, TUI Group and many more. We provide active investments with 200 leading Silicon Valley VCs, and host more than 700 networking events per year. Companies in our community have raised over $10 billion in funding, with successful portfolio exits including Danger, Dropbox, Lending Club, and PayPal. For more information, visit www.plugandplaytechcenter.com
