In 2021, Liege Airport (LGG) beats another record. The cargo specialist airport reported a 26% increase in cargo, from 1,1m tonnes in 2020 to 1.4m tonnes in 2021. The record volumes follow on from record years in 2020 and 2019. The main market segments being concerned are humanitarian equipment, the pharmaceutical sector and healthcare (masks, vaccines, medicines).
What are the reasons for such a success?
Firstly, there was a need for more freighters since the reduction of passenger flights, and therefore bellyhold. As explained by the airport’s chief executive, Laurent Jossart, “the global disruption of supply chains, and the lack of air-transport capacity in the holds of passenger aircraft are trends that emerged in 2020 and that have also spurred our growth in 2021.”
Secondly, Liege Airport, being the centre of European cross-border trade, relies on a well-connected multimodal approach. Liege rail terminals, which have connections to China, handled 16,103 containers in 2021, an increase of almost 70% over the numbers for 2020. The number of aircraft movements has also increased (by more than 13.4%), as well as the number of cargo-aircraft movements (increase of 12%).
Thirdly, LGG increased its capacity by adding a 30.000 m2 warehouse, operated by Cainiao & WFS, which “supports and confirms our role as an e-commerce hub” says Bert Selis, VP Commercial Cargo & Logistics.
Hence, no surprise that LGG received once again the award for the “Best Cargo Hub for 2021”!
In 2021, LGG has added two additional flights to Johannesburg, which brings the number of direct flights per week to Johannesburg to 10: 3 Magma, 3 Qatar Airways and 4 Ethiopian Airlines. Those are all direct flights, with no change of airplanes, no unloading and reloading the cargo. Additionally, South Africa is also connected to LGG by Astral Aviation via Nairobi.
Moreover, the biggest airline in Liege is ASL Belgium (formerly TNT Airways). The ASL Group is also the most important shareholder of FlySafair.
So, there is a lot of "connecting points" between LGG and South Africa!