Chair of Crisis Governance

The Chair of Crisis Governance is delighted to announce a new partnership with Brussels Airport Company. Over the next three years, we will collaborate to better understand crisis governance through academia and practice. Brussels Airport Company becomes the Chair’s fourth partner, alongside Brandweer Zone Antwerpen, PM • Risk Crisis Change, and Port of Antwerp-Bruges.

Brussels Airport Company (BAC)  is one of the most important airports in Europe, connecting Belgium directly to 210 destinations worldwide and welcoming 23,6 million passengers in 2024. Strategically positioned in the heart of Europe, the airport acts as a vital hub for international travel and logistics operations. The airport strategy focuses on hub performance, diversification, and sustainability. Brussels Airport Company has gained significant expertise in crisis management, having encountered various crises - from terror attacks to the COVID-19 lockdown. Every two years, the airport conducts large-scale emergency exercises, and recently, it opened its own state-of-the-art crisis center.

This partnership presents numerous opportunities to advance resilience management and crisis governance practices. The airport's extensive hands-on experience managing crises provides valuable insights that can enrich academic research on crisis prevention and preparedness. By approaching these challenges scientifically, its crisis governance strategies offer potential lessons and tools for other organizations to adopt.

“Brussels Airport Company's partnership conveys a clear message that scientific knowledge and new practical insights into crisis management and crisis governance are strategically vital for businesses and organizations today, more than ever. We sincerely hope that other companies will recognize this signal, allowing us to conduct essential pioneering research on actionable crisis governance in the coming years," says Prof. Dr. Hugo Marynissen, co-chair of the Chair of Crisis Governance.

“Crisis governance is of course of the utmost importance for Brussels Airport. An airport is like a small city, it is a vibrant and challenging environment with many stakeholders and companies and daily some 100.000 passengers, commuters and airport employees on site, which demands clear processes and a good preparation to ensure good crisis management when needed. We look forward to this collaboration and sharing our experience and to work together with the academics providing us with new insights from the outside in. A collaboration from which we can both benefit!”, says Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport.

The Chair is excited about this partnership with Brussels Airport Company and is confident it will significantly strengthen crisis governance practices across various sectors.