Liege aims to be among top-3 European cargo hubs by 2030

Despite several challenges post the pandemic, Liege Airport (LGG) aims to be among the top-3 European cargo hubs by 2030. The major driver of such an optimistic outlook is the airport’s ambitious Master Plan 2040. Torsten Wefers, Vice President Sales & Marketing and Frederic Brun, Head of Commercial Cargo & Logistics at Liege Airport, discuss with The STAT Trade Times the different aspects of the Master Plan and how they are positioning Liege Airport as the leading European hub for freighter traffic and the new cargo powerhouse.

Describe the key elements of Liege Airport’s Master Plan 2040?
We will double our Cargo Zone North by adding 15 wide body parking stands, 3 new first line warehouse with a total handling space of 40,000+ sqm and a 2-bay wide body MRO hangar, an infrastructure currently missing in Liege (LGG). Our secondary runway will be extended to 3,200 meters providing a full contingency to our fast-growing cargo airline partners. On top, we will further develop our taxiway-system which will lead reduced taxing times and even more efficient ground processes. Last but not least, several support buildings for airport maintenance, storage facilities for aircraft parts, a third fire brigade building and dedicated central areas for the ground support equipment (GSE) storage and unit load device (ULD) buffer zones will be created airside.

For the further development of our forwarder and logistics activities, a total of 90 hectares of land development is included in our master plan. Last but not least, we will develop, with partners, in the East zone of the airport, a multimodal rail-road terminal with support logistics warehouses based on our strategy to develop Liege Airport from a transit airport to a multimodal platform. In a first step the capacity of the existing rail terminal will be doubled.

What is the timeline for the master plan and what do we see taking priority in the timeline?
We are currently breaking down the master plan in its individual development steps, defining the exact layout and time lines for each single project. Priorities are the pro-active development of the additional airside infrastructure (parking stands and taxi-way development) and first line warehouses, the MRO facility and maintenance support buildings. The first four parking stands and the first new warehouse will be ready in 2026/27. The next development steps will follow in a 12-18 months sequence. In parallel, we have recently opened the tender process for the first two second line warehouse development areas which will be developed by real estate companies specialized in logistics infrastructure development.

“We will develop, with partners, in the East zone of the airport, a multimodal rail-road terminal with support logistics warehouses based on our strategy to develop Liege Airport from a transit airport to a multimodal platform.”
Torsten Wefers

How will the implementation of the master plan 2040 position Liege Airport better within Europe and how will it become a much more attractive European hub connecting cargo from East to West and West to East?
We are positioning ourselves even more as the leading European hub for freighter traffic and new cargo powerhouse. Based on our unique 24/7 product, the strong support of the entire LGG community and the continuous and proactive developments of both air and land-side capacities, we will strengthen our position even more. Being historically an airport focused on connecting Africa and Asia to Europe, we have developed it into a cargo hub airport in the last two years, connecting all continents with regular freighter flights via LGG. One good example of this development is our home carrier Challenge Airlines, which is currently developing from a niche player to a global hub carrier. Challenge is constantly growing its fleet of B747-400F and B767-300F and is connecting new markets such as India to LGG. We are working together with Challenge Airlines and our other strategic airline partners to further fill the few remaining white spots in our freighter destination network.

What will some of the other features that will be added? How will LGG enhance its value proposition for airline customers?
Besides what is described above, we have a strong focus on the digital side. We are currently developing a digital twin of our airport infrastructure. In concrete terms, we are continuously developing and implementing new digital applications which will support the individual stakeholders in LGG in their daily work. It will have a further positive impact in the quality and speed of the handling process of the volumes handled via LGG. A strong focus is recently on ‘LGG Tracking’, an application that will enable the real time tracking of all import goods handled via the LGG platform and will be connected to the Belgium customs systems. Export flows will be added in a second step. LGG Tracking and all further applications will be made available to all our partners via a centralized digital platform called ‘LGG Connect’. This is also the name of the formalized LGG Cargo Community, which will go live, as a non-profit organization in July. We are in the final steps of the launch and are looking forward to have soon the LGG Connect as a new strong partner for the future development of LGG on our side.

What kind of growth are you expecting over the next 16 years as you complete different phases of the master plan in terms of airlines, freighter movements and cargo throughput annually?
We are expecting a continuous growth in our cargo activities and want to become one of the top-3 European cargo hubs in 2030 with an annual throughput of 2.3 million tonnes of flown cargo. Additionally, we want to further develop our cargo airline portfolio from 40+ airlines now. But there is also a strong focus on supporting our existing airlines in their commercial and strategic LGG-developments.

In the new master plan, are there any specific commodity/cargo sectors that will have special focus? Like, pharma, ecommerce or perishables?
Being the biggest European hub for e-commerce flows and perishables & flowers we will continue our focus on these verticals. Together with our local handling partners Aviapartner, Belgium Airport Services (BAS), Challenge Handling, Swissport and WFS we are continuously developing new and additional infrastructure and processes supporting these flows. Our dedicated cool chain infrastructure also has a very positive impact in LGG's capabilities to handle the pharma vertical. Based on this, we also see investments by major forwarders in dedicated temperature-controlled pharma warehouses. We will also start a project to make LGG a ‘mail-friendly’ airport supporting various flows transported under the mail umbrella.

“We are in the final steps of the launch and are looking forward to have soon the LGG Connect as a new strong partner for the future development of LGG on our side.”
Frederic Brun

Can you give us a sense of the cargo volume handled for the year 2023? You had the highest annual cargo throughput volume in 2021 (close to 1.5 million tonnes), but dropped in 2022.
In 2023, 1.06 million tonnes of flown cargo have been handled via LGG. Last year's volumes have been still negatively impacted by the reduction of the FedEx (former TNT) hub in Liege, the stop of all AirBridgeCargo operations and the overall negative market developments. Especially in Q1 2023, with a decrease of more than 25% in tonnage, there was a significant negative impact. Nevertheless, we see again, since November last year, constant growth figures in LGG. Our newly developed commercial strategy is resulting increased numbers in both movements and tonnage.

At the completion of the entire master plan by 2040, what is the cargo volume throughput the airport will process annually?
Part of the master plan is a long-term forecast for our cargo-related traffic. Based on this forecast we are planning with 2.3 million tonnes of cargo handled via LGG in 2040.