BluSky Services is 9 Years Old

BluSky Services, the company also behind Roger-Wilco, was born on 1 April 2003.

There were lots of rumors and lots of maneuvering but it was not until October 2002 that we heard who would have to go and who would be allowed to stay. I was among the former… The cease and desist order was supposed to be effective immediately but I managed to convince my boss that there were so many running issues that dropping them just like that would cause even more damage and so we should move the date of separation to 31 December 2002. This would at least give time to arrange for a controlled crash landing.
I looked around for other possibilities but the prospects were bleak to say the least. Most companies were shedding people instead of hiring and in the crisis situation even my long experience in civil aviation counted for little.
Of course IATA was only the latest example of crisis-damaged companies. SABENA had gone bankrupt the year before. In the circumstances it was quite normal that I should also consult with a pilot friend who used to work for SABENA and who was sure to be bale to offer good advice. After all, he had been in a very similar situation only a short time earlier.
To cut a long story short, the idea of starting our own company and the motivation to get rid of all hesitation came from him and so he will forever remain the honorary father of BluSky and our thanks go out to him on this anniversary.

Of course over the years there were many others who helped and smoothed our way and our special thanks to them also. Needless to say, without the help and support of my wife and sons, our company would never have made it to where it is to-day.
In a way we were also lucky. Although the crisis had created a very difficult business environment, once the industry hit rock-bottom, recovery was on the horizon and BluSky was firmly in the slip-stream. The rest is history.

Our mark is on many things, from Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) and System Wide Information Management (SWIM) to SESAR. BluSky Services has maintained its focus on future oriented, out of the box thinking and we see that we have been right. Although the going has not always been easy, the direction remains as valid as it has ever been.
Finally, a few possibly little known tidbits about the company. First, the name. Why is the “e” missing from the Blu? If you go to the malls in France, you cannot fail to notice the many household/kitchen products that bear the name Bluesky… This is the brand name of a Korean company who produce everything from fridges to blue-ray players. They are also very keen to protect their name. Within hours of our name, BluSky Services, having been registered they were all over our website, no doubt checking to see whether our products were a threat to their activities. I guess they were satisfied that we were not a threat because they never came back afterwards…
Another question we have often had: what is the dog doing in the BluSky logo? Well, there is also an aircraft but it is much smaller… We have chosen the Husky as our example to follow because Huskies are fiercely independent, intelligent and always find their way. Cyrano, our very real Husky has been with us for the first few years of BluSky’s existence and he lives on in our logo.