Liege Airport saw freight transport decline in 2022 as passenger numbers rose

2022 was mixed year for Liege Airport, with a decline in freight transport and a strong increase of passengers. With more than 1,140,000 tonnes transiting through its facilities, the airport is still in pole position in Belgium and in the European top. In terms of passenger activity, Liege Airport welcomed 166,898 passengers in 2022, an increase […]

Air China partners with WFS for cargo and ramp handling in Liege

Air China has commenced a new three-year cargo and ramp handling agreement with Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) in Liege, Belgium. The airline operates four Boeing 777 freighter flights a week to Liege from Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, the capital of Zhejiang Province, returning to China via Madrid. WFS expects to handle over 14,000 tonnes of cargo […]

El Al starts cargo service to Liege

El Al has re-entered the freighter market with Atlas Air operating a Boeing 747-400F on the Tel Aviv to Liege route. The flag carrier signed an ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance) agreement with Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings for flights that began last month. Liege is Belgium’s main air cargo facility and bucked the downward […]

Liege Airport hits record 900,000 tonnes

Torsten Wefers joins Liege Airport

More than 900,000 tonnes of goods was transported through Liege Airport in 2019, a new record for Belgium’s main air cargo facility. The movement of 902.480 tonnes of transported goods is a 3.6% increase compared with 870.644 tonnes in 2018. The rise is in contrast to a slowdown in the global air cargo sector slowed […]

Swissport awarded five-year cargo contract with Lufthansa group at Brussels and Liège airports

Swissport acquires Belgium Airport Services

Swissport and Lufthansa signed a 5-year contract for cargo handling at Brussels and Liège airports. The agreement covers Brussels Airlines, Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines. At the end of December 2019, Swissport and Lufthansa Cargo renewed their agreement regarding cargo handling at Brussels and Liège airports. The agreement includes warehousing and cargo ramp transport of mail, […]

Qatar Airways ends Maastricht to Liege flights

Qatar Airways Cargo will stop operating flights between Maastricht and Liege airports, according Belgian minister Jean-Luc Crucke. The flight covering 38 kilometres and lasting nine minutes was part of a flight route from China via Doha to Mexico. The contract reportedly stated the cargo must be sent to Maastricht but the Dutch airport’s runway was […]

Liege Airport signs deals at WeCargo event

The WeCargo event on 12-14 November gave Liege Airport the opportunity to sign three partnership agreements with Orange Belgium, Alibaba Cloud and Qatar Airways Cargo. The agreement with Qatar Airways Cargo extends the airline’s contract at the airport and confirms plans to expand operations. Guillaume Halleux, chief officer of cargo at Qatar Airways says: “We […]

Coastair is in the right place

Located in the south of Belgium, Liege Airport is one of the few airports not posting grim results at the moment, making it an ideal location for Coastair. Managing director Ronny Samaey tells Air Cargo Week that business is performing well, with two new routes and the opening of Skyhouse, Coastair’s second line warehouse in […]

Jettainer to manage ASL Airlines Belgium’s ULD fleet

ASL Airlines Belgium has picked Jettainer to manage its ULD fleet, with the five-year contract starting with immediate effect. The Liege Airport-based cargo airline, which is part of ASL Aviation Holdings Group, specialises in the express market and offers scheduled, charter and ad-hoc flights using Boeing 737 and 747 freighters. ASL’s existing fleet of ULDs, […]

Envirotainer adds Liege to RAP e2 network

Envirotainer has extended its network for e-technology containers by opening its 34th RAP e2 station in Liege, Belgium. The RAP e2 containers has shipped over 150,000 pallets of pharmaceuticals to date with no product losses. Niklas Lönnkvist, head of sales EMEA for Envirotainer says Europe is the largest pharmaceutical region in the world, with exports […]

NAM adds B747F flights from Liege to Johannesburg

Network Airline Management has opened two flights a week between Liege, Belgium and Johannesburg, South Africa. The Boeing 747F services operate on days 4 and 7 with the first flight taking to the sky on 29 September. The route opens up road feeder services from South Africa’s main city to onward destinations including Gaborone, Harare, […]

Liege Airport and Volga-Dnepr cement partnership

Volga-Dnepr Group and Liege Airport have signed a memorandum of understanding to reinforce their strategic cooperation to set up a regional hub. The agreement serves as an extension of the memorandum signed last summer between the airport, Volga-Dnepr and CargoLogicAir with the aim of strengthening positions of the three companies in the European market. The […]

ACE Belgium Freighters is ready for take-off

Torsten Wefers joins Liege Airport

ACE Belgium Freighters has received its Air Operator’s Certificate as it gets ready to operate scheduled and charter services from Liege Airport. The airline received the certificate on 18 April from the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority and will start commercial cargo operations with scheduled flights to New York JFK and plans to provide charter services. […]

WFS to support ABC’s growth plans at Liege Airport

ABC approved to transport lithium battery shipments

AirBridgeCargo Airlines (ABC) has chosen Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) as its handling partner at Liege Airport ahead of the opening of the first phase of its cargo area at the end of 2019. The cooperation is in support of the strategic partnership signed between ABC’s parent company, Volga-Dnepr Group and Liege, boosting the airline’s volumes […]

Etihad Cargo brings FIA World Rallycross to Abu Dhabi

Etihad Cargo delivered all 17 rally cars and 200 cubic metres of spare parts for the region’s first ever ‘festival of racing’ FIA World Rallycross of Abu Dhabi. A chartered Boeing 777 Freighter flew the WRX rally cars from Liege, Belgium where the cars had travelled to from all over Europe, to Abu Dhabi. The […]

Etihad Cargo to fly horses for Longines Masters

Etihad Cargo has been chosen to transport show jumping horses from Belgium to Hong Kong for the annual Longines Masters taking place on 15-17 February. This is the third consecutive year that Etihad Cargo has transported the elite horses, with a dedicated charter flight from Liege delivering 68 horses accompanied by professional grooms and a […]

AirBridgeCargo to make Liege its European hub

AirBridgeCargo Airlines (ABC) has signed a 10 year lease agreement with Liege Airport to make the Belgian city its European hub. The agreement is an extension of the memorandum of understanding signed between Liege Airport and Volga-Dnepr Group at the Farnborough International Airshow in July and will create jobs and drive airport development. Under the […]

Uni-top Airlines adds Liege-Wuhan route to Air Silk Road

Uni-top Airlines is continuing to develop routes between China and Europe with flights from Liege to Wuhan using a Boeing 747-400 Freighter. The service will leave the Belgian airport on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, arriving in Wuhan the next day using the 747-400F with a capacity of 110 tonnes. European manufacturers of automobile parts, particularly […]

Emirates SkyCargo flies first horses to FEI World Equestrian Games

Emirates SkyCargo has transported the first group of 67 horses for the FEI World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018. The horses were flown from Liege, Belgium to Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina in an Emirates SkyCargo Boeing 777 Freighter. This is the first of 19 flights that Emirates SkyCargo will be operating as a special charter for one […]

Alibaba’s Cainiao Network to develop global hubs

Alibaba’s logistics arm, Cainiao Network will develop ‘global hubs’ in five cities around the world to improve cross border logistics infrastructure and improve consumer experience. Cainiao is not revealing any more details on the global hub expansion plan, promising more details will be announced at a later date but the five cities will be Dubai, […]

Silk Way West adds Liege to its growing network

Silk Way West Airlines has added Liege to its network and is adding Boeing 747-400 Freighters to its fleet to help maintain steady growth. The airline started operating twice weekly flights between Liege, Belgium and its hub in Baku, Azerbaijan at the end of April, and follows on from recently restarting services to Budapest, Hungary. […]

Liege Airport boosted by FedEx commitment

Recent years have been nerve-wracking for Belgium’s Liège Airport, Neil Madden writes. One of Europe’s most cargo-friendly airports was heavily dependent on Dutch express operator TNT, at one point accounting for 2,000 of 3,500 jobs. But the takeover of TNT Express by Fedex and the acquisition of TNT Airways by ASL Aviation raised concerns over […]

Ethiopian launches freighter flights from Bahir Dar to Liege

Ethiopian Cargo has launched freighter flights from Bahir Dar to Liege, carrying 45 tons of flowers on the inaugural service on 24 January. The airline’s Group chief executive officer, Tewolde Gebremariam says the route is an important milestone in Ethiopian Cargo and Logistics Services’ history, offering direct freighter services dedicated to flowers with the aim […]

New parking area at Liege Airport as it invests heavily in cargo

Torsten Wefers joins Liege Airport

Liege Airport has invested in four new parking areas for large aircraft as part of a major investment prioritising cargo. The hub, which is the 8th largest cargo airport in European and the largest in Belgium, is investing more than €50 million ($60 million) in cargo. The investment for the parking areas amounts to €30 […]

WFS picks up five new handling contracts in France

Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) has scooped five new cargo handling contracts by passenger and freighter airlines in France. Four of the contracts cover Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport as well as handling at WFS’ other 11 cargo stations across France. Belly carrier Vietnam Airlines has renewed its handling agreement with WFS, while CAL Cargo Airlines […]

Network Airline Services extends contract with AFS Kenya

Network Airline Services (NAS) has signed a two-year extension to its contract with Africa Flight Services Kenya (AFS Kenya) to provide cargo handling for its four flights a week into Nairobi. AFS Kenya will handle 11,500 tonnes of cargo a year for NAS’ MD-11 and Boeing 747 Freighter operations, which arrive in Nairobi from Liege […]

NAM and Astral sign wet lease deal for B747F with Air Atlanta

Network Airline Management (NAM) and Kenya-based Astral Aviation have signed a long-term wet lease with Air Atlanta Icelandic adding a factory-built, nose-loader B747-400 Freighter to their existing managed fleet of three MD11Fs. The B747-400F made its inaugural flight from London Stansted Airport to Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport yesterday, expanding NAM’s capacity to East Africa. […]

ABC to add Liege to European network with up to 12 flights a week

AirBridgeCargo Airlines Boeing 747F

AirBridgeCargo Airlines (ABC) is to add Liege Airport to its network with flights starting in the winter schedule, increasing cargo capacity up to 12 flights a week. It describes the Belgian airport as “an excellent example of a cargo-friendly airport in every aspect of its daily operations” and will gradually increase capacity up to 12 […]

First equine guests welcomed to The ARK at JFK

The ARK at New York’s JFK International Airport has received its first equestrian guests after the Equine Import Quarantine facility opened its doors. Approved by the US Department of Agriculture top-class horses were welcomed over Labor Day weekend. Also known as “3 Shades of Grey,” these three Irish horses named Sandy, Jackson and Polly, were originally […]

Chapman Freeborn delivers 60 tonnes of pipe spooling to Houston

Chapman Freeborn Airchartering has overseen the delivery of 60 tonnes of pipe spooling from Sharjah to Houston to upgrade a gas-to-liquids processing plant. The charter specialist’s Dubai office coordinated the movement on behalf of a freight forwarder, with the assistance of Magma Aviation, who repositioned a Boeing 747-400 Freighter to the Middle East for the […]