Liege Airport will invest more than 20 million euros by the end of 2018

Liège airport has planned an investment of 20 million euros, which should allow the creation of more than 300 direct jobs

Liege Airport will accelerate its investments and devote more than 20 million euros to the construction of new warehouses and equipment, said the first cargo airport in the country on Monday.

Why these investments?

1. Freight activities at Liege Airport have been growing steadily in recent months due to the good performance of airlines flying to Liege, but also due to the growth of global air freight transport.

2. There is also a limitation of the number of flights to Amsterdam Schiphol airport which pushes some companies to relocate, particularly to Liège. Since June, the largest Chinese cargo company, Air China Cargo, flies weekly between Shanghai and Liege and it will increase its flights in 2018.

3. In addition, in early October, Air Bridge Cargo decided to establish its main hub at Liege Airport.

After having seen more than 660,000 tonnes of freight handled in 2016 (+ 1.7% compared to 2015), the Walloon airport should handle around 700,000 tonnes in 2017, which would be a new record. And 2018 is looking even better.

To respond to this growth, Liege Airport will increase its storage space. Nearly 20,000 m² of additional warehouses are planned, which corresponds to a 30% increase in the cargo handling capacity of the airport.

The first new hall of 6.000 m² will be available in January 2018 and the other warehouses should be operational by the end of 2018. These investments will lead to the creation of 300 direct jobs, according to a conservative estimate by airport officials. Activities at Liege Airport currently employ some 3,500 direct jobs. In terms of the goods transported, Liège was the eighth European airport in 2016.

Source: Belga