AirBridgeCargo Airlines to Establish European Hub at Liege Airport

Liege Airport and AirBridgeCargo Airlines have signed a 10-year lease agreement.

Under the deal, AirBridgeCargo will lease 25,000 sqm of warehouse space and 2,000 sqm of office space for a total investment of around 25 million Euros

The deal will bring the scale of cooperation between two companies to the next level of development, boosting air cargo volumes of ABC to/from the airport and placing Liege Airport amongst the top 5 cargo airports in Europe by 2020.

Luc Partoune, CEO of Liege Airport, said, “We welcomed the first flights in October 2017 because AirBridgeCargo had to reduce its presence in Amsterdam. Then we responded to their call for tenders launched earlier this year for the creation of their European hub. They liked the cargo DNA of Liege Airport. We had strong political support at both the federal and regional levels. AirBridgeCargo sees opportunities for expansion, can count on a quality workforce and rely on efficient Belgian customs. Thanks to AirBridgeCargo, we plan to reach one million metric tonnes by 2020 and become one of the top 5 cargo airports in Europe.”

The agreement comes as a logical extension to a Memorandum of Understanding which was signed between Liege Airport and Volga-Dnepr Group earlier this year.

The project will be divided into two phases, with the first one to be launched in June 2019 when AirBridgeCargo will get its first 12,500 sqm warehouse.

The second phase will commence in early 2020 with the rest of warehouse premises to follow.

Walloon Airports Company (Société Wallonne des Aéroports - SOWAER) will also build four new aircraft stands to accommodate the growing AirBridgeCargo fleet.

Sergey Lazarev, General Director of AirBridgeCargo, said, “With the lease of dedicated warehouse facilities for the next 10 years and ABC’s intention to increase the number of weekly flights to Liege up to 30 within the next 1.5 years, AirBridgeCargo will be able to leverage growing market demand for special cargoes, especially e-commerce shipments. An agreement of this size comes with a number of benefits not only for ABC but also for our customers, who will get more frequency options and high level of service quality.”

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