Brussels Airport announced last week the launch of a blockchain-based application. The system is part of the company’s BRUcloud, an open data-sharing platform that can be used for the development of different apps. The blockchain app will help track cargo movement from handlers to forwarders and will integrate with upcoming and existing applications like Slot Booking App.
Unlike other cargo community systems, which focus on digitizing the communication between parties, the BRUcloud platform will concentrate on data sharing in a cloud environment.
Sara Van Gelder, manager of Brussels Airport’s cargo business development, commented on the application:
“It enables the different stakeholders of the air cargo supply chain to work more “integrated” and act as a network. Data will be stored only once, centrally. Once a company is connected to the cloud, it can start using the different existing applications and can start exchanging information very easily with other stakeholders instead of maintaining system-to-system connections with all different partners individually.”
The new blockchain-based app takes to the next level the “Landsite Management tool” that the company is developing in collaboration with its stakeholders at the cargo unit.
Steven Polmans, who is in charge of cargo and logistics, explained:
“The new Freight Management App 1.0 will replace the handover of cargo from handlers to forwarder from a paper-based process by a digital rights/release process.”
He added that the support coming from stakeholders, from ideas to implementation of new apps, was essential for BRUcloud to succeed. One of the supporters is DHL Global Forwarding, which has been active since the beginning of the project.
Luc Jacobs, head of DHL’s Belgium and Luxemburg operations, said the company was interested in tools and application which guarantee supply chain visibility.
Another party showing interest in Brussels Airport’s blockchain platform is WFS, a major ground handling company.
This is not the first instance of distributed ledger technology being adopted by airport operators. In January, Canadian representatives announced at the WEF that the government would test an airport system to help travelers share personal data in advance.
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