E-commerce and Red Sea Demand Drive Cargo Growth at Liege Airport

Cargo volumes at Liege Airport were up 16% in March year on year following increased air cargo demand in the market this year combined with e-commerce and Red Sea-related demand.

The Belgian freighter hub handled 104,080 tons in March versus 90,097 tons in March 2023. Volumes were also up more than 14% for the year to date.

Meanwhile, the number of cargo aircraft movements rose by 8% compared with the same period in 2023.

Liege Airport stated: “This increase in volumes outstrips the trend in global demand of 11%, as revealed by an analysis by Xeneta. Cargo air transport got off to a stronger start than forecasted at the end of 2023.

“E-commerce and the difficulties encountered by maritime transport in the Red Sea and its modal shift towards airfreight further fuelled this strong growth.”

The airport stated that operations are shifting away from nighttime hours and noisy aircraft as part of plans to tackle pollution and become more sustainable.

In March, the number of night flights was 12% down in comparison to March 2023 (860 movements vs. 981 movements), while daytime movements grew by 26%.

Liege also noted that since the beginning of the year the airport has seen an 8% reduction in the number of flights operated by both Boeing 747-400F and 747-200F aircraft, which has reduced noise at the airport and for surrounding communities.

Laurent Jossart, chief executive at Liege, said: “We are particularly pleased with the growth in volumes at Liege Airport’s logistics and multimodal hub. We beat our all-time record for volumes in a week 13 of the year (previous record set in 2021). This is a big encouragement for the future and confirms the validity of our Masterplan 2023-2040.”