SkeyDrone Managing Director, Hendrik-Jan Van Der Gucht, has published an open letter to Belgium’s new federal policymakers and key industry stakeholders, calling for growth opportunities for the Belgian companies active in the emerging drone ecosystem.
The total (potential) value of the Belgian drone market has been estimated to be more than EUR 400M and a recent analysis conducted by SkeyDrone has shown that the current size of the Belgian market reaches just five percent of this estimated economic potential, with particular untapped potential in beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations.
Van Der Gucht writes that the industry continues to encounter significant challenges or ‘growth hurdles’ that cannot be addressed solely by supply-side efforts and bottom-up initiatives.
“Over the past five years, SkeyDrone has undertaken many bottom-up initiatives aimed at developing this promising industry, in collaboration with numerous Belgian start-ups and scale-ups. Unfortunately, we have only succeeded to a very limited extent.
“Numerous drone operators encounter airspace restrictions that hinder the development and scaling of promising and highly desired drone applications. A national airspace organisation and management policy is essential to resolve the current situation and provide a growth outlook for drone operators and application users.
Van Der Gucht also notes that there has been very little progress toward establishing a national counter-drone policy or securing associated investment funds to protect national critical assets with Belgian solutions. “Belgium also lacks the required legal framework (and resources) for the enforcement and prosecution of violations against the drone legislation.”
In the letter, he presents various suggestions such as bundling the needs of multiple public stakeholders as users of drone services, which could result in joint tenders. “In a Belgian context, we see a strong demand for the use of drones in surveillance and inspection-based use cases in ports (sea/air) and cities (including surrounding industrial zones) on the one hand, and around line infrastructures (high voltage lines, pipelines, railways) on the other hand.”
Van Der Gucht says the introduction of U-space is an essential policy tool that needs to be included in Belgium’s 2025-2030 airspace vision and implementation plan, yet to be developed. “U-space will not only enable the drone market to grow beyond the Open Category of operations, it is also the absolute prerequisite for the development of innovative Urban and Advanced Air Mobility (UAM / AAM) applications.
He adds that hurdles hindering the smooth deployment of drones by state actors include the absence of a uniform regulatory framework in Belgium that governs the use of drones by state Actors and notes that there is no national policy for the priority treatment (by UAS geo-zone managers) of state flights. “A full alignment on the requirements imposed on both state aircraft and civil drone operations, e.g. through at least a partial ‘opt-in’ of state aircraft operations in the U-space regulation, will be an absolute prerequisite for ensuring safety both in the air and on the ground.”
SkeyDrone hopes that the Open Letter will provide a foundation for starting a structured dialogue with policymakers and stakeholders.
For more information
Hendrik-Jan Van Der Gucht’s Open Letter in full
