Nathan De Valck, Cargo Account Manager Sales & Marketing Brussels Airport, Managing Director Belgium for WFS, will become the new CEO of the airports of Antwerp and Ostend-Bruges.
De Valck started his career as a management trainee at Aviapartner. He then moved to the cargo team of Brussels Airport Company, where he took the positions of Pharma & Life Sciences specialist, Cargo Development Manager, Cargo Business and Product Manager and Head of Product & Network Development. Since 2022, he has led the Belgian offices of WFS in Brussels and Liege. He was also the chairman of the association Pharma.Aero.
The Flemish Airports are owned by the Flemish regional government, which has handed over the operational management to the French group, Egis. In his new function as CEO, Nathan De Valck will succeed Eric Dumas, who himself had been succeeded by Bruno De Jaegher on 01SEP24. As De Jaegher stepped down on 28NOV24, Dumas had to return to his former function to fill the gap.
As a dyed-in-the-wool air cargo specialist, Mr. De Valck will have to put his shoulder to the wheel in reviving and upgrading Ostend-Bruges cargo business which, in 2024, dropped by 45.2% to a mere 18,124 tons. This was a far cry from the 62,056 tons noted in 2021. The departure of Qatar Cargo in APR23, added to the decline of the volume. Antwerp Airport is a general aviation and passenger airport mainly.
The economic viability of both airports has been contested for decades by residents in both Ostend and Antwerp, as well as environmental groups.
At the moment, Nathan does not yet have the authority to communicate about his cargo strategy, he told CFG. “I hope to be able to give more details about the commercial strategy very soon.” He will officially take the helm on 16JUN25. His mandate as the representative of the Brussels Airport handling business within Air Cargo Belgium, will pass to someone else.
