Cainiao (Alibaba) presents Liege Airport as European hub for its Global e-commerce network

Today, 31 May 2018, on the occasion of the Global Smart Logistics Summit, Liege Airport was chosen by the Chinese logistics group Cainiao Smart Logistics Network to become its logistics hub in Europe. Cainiao announced several cities chosen worldwide to receive its e-commerce products. Liege figures in this international network.

Via a vast network of collaborations and partners, Cainiao Smart Logistics Network supplies logistics services (warehouses, express delivery points, last mile etc.). However, above all, Cainiao exploits a collaborative data platform to ensure intelligent management of the logistic flows. This electronic tool supplies real-time access to information for logistics partners, buyers and sellers.

E-commerce shipments from the Cainiao network are already entering the European market via Liege Airport. Establishing the hub will increase those volumes and result in more flights between Asia and Liege Airport.

Liege has a strong potential to become an international hub and this decision confirms the importance of the e-commerce sector for developments at Liege Airport. The hubs are intended to support the expansion of service “Delivery in 5 days” of Cainiao, which hopes to grow from 30 to 100 cities in the world over the coming three years for its deliveries.
In this way, efficient collaboration between AWEX, LIW, the Belgian customs and the airport has been crowned with success, as Luc Partoune, CEO of Liege Airport, explains: “We particularly wish to thank all our partners, who have enabled us to receive one of the largest logistics firms in the world. Cainiao has chosen our airport for its flexibility, the quality of its services, its advantages consisting of its ideal localisation in Europe, the fact that it is open 24/7 and its connectivity with the other continents”.

“The e-commerce strategy in air cargo will truly revolutionise air transport and logistics processing. The digitisation of operations, their monitoring and robotisation are profoundly changing our businesses. Liege Airport is destined to become the cargo airport of the future and the partnership with Cainiao will contribute to this”, states Luc Partoune.

This new partnership between a major logistics company and Liege Airport will integrate local SMEs and promote their exports via e-commerce.

Liege Airport, 31 May 2018

Note: Cainiao is the logistics group for Alibaba, the Chinese competitor of Amazon. Alibaba also owns 51% of Cainiao. This is thus an important new customer for Liege Airport, who could create some 1000 jobs in the medium term.