Liège bucks air cargo trend with record month

Airport’s October record reflects combination of higher load factors, extra scheduled and charter flights, and ‘some first glimpses of an emerging peak’, following year-to-date growth of 3%.

Liège Airport has bucked the trend this year of falling air cargo volumes by reporting the best month for cargo traffic in its history, handling almost 84,000 tonnes in October – thanks to a combination of higher load factors on scheduled flights, extra scheduled and charter flights, and “some first glimpses of an emerging peak”.

This brought the Belgian air hub’s volume for the first 10 months of 2019 to 730,000 tonnes, with two peak months of the year to go.

“In these challenging times, with air cargo volumes being down all over the world, Liege Airport is going against the trend,” the airport said. “On a European level, the freight market has been falling for 10 months in a row; however, Liege Airport has its head above water with year-to-date growth of 3%.”

Besides being the airport’s highest monthly total volume, October 2019 also brought the airport’s highest import volumes ever, with imports making up 51% of traffic.

Commenting on the record performance, VP for commercial Steven Verhasselt told Lloyd’s Loading List: “There was not one really determining factor but more of a combination of higher load factors on scheduled flights, some additional flights from existing customers – CAL, for example and Magma as well – and also some new services (Saudia Cargo started operating scheduled flights at LGG in October), and a good number of charters as well. It really came down to some first glimpses of an emerging peak.”

But the airport’s continuing growth also reflects more broadly its continuing attraction as a freighter hub, having successfully marketed itself as a cargo-specialist alternative to northern Europe’s often-congested main metropolitan airports – including to Chinese carriers and e-commerce logistics players.

The November volume is set to be boosted by a programme of cargo charter flights operated for Cainiao, the logistics arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, in the run-up to the 11.11 ‘Singles Day’ online shopping spree – which is enjoying increased popularity in Europe – and also by charter flights transporting goods ahead of the end-of-year peak season.

Alibaba is investing €75 million in its Liège ‘smart logistics’ hub, Cainiao leasing a 220,000 sqm facility that is earmarked to start operations in early 2021. The hub is designed to support cross-border trade, especially between Europe and China, and help SMEs better manage their exports especially with the surge in global e-commerce.

“For the Cainiao Smart Hub, everything is on schedule and so far so good,” Verhasselt said. “But we still have a long way to go before the 220,000 sqm facility will be fully operational. Step-by-step, all parties involved are working towards this goal and it is shaping up nicely.”

Last month, the first ‘China Railway Express (Yiwu-Liège) Alibaba eWTP (electronic World Trade Platform) Cainiao train’, loaded with 82 cargo containers, arrived in Liège after a 17-day trip from central China.

“We now have three weekly trains connecting the airport to China in which Cainiao is also a very important partner,” Verhasselt added.

Source: Lloyd’s