AirBridgeCargo to set up its European hub at Liege Airport
Liege Airport and AirBridgeCargo Airlines have signed an historic lease agreement for 10 years. It 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 among the top 5 cargo airports in Europe by 2020.
The agreement comes as a logical extension of Memorandum of Understanding, which was signed between Liege Airport and Volga-Dnepr Group earlier this year during the Farnborough International Airshow 2018 in July, and will contribute to the development of the regional economy in general, creating numerous amounts of jobs and favouring growth of air cargo sector, and the airport development in particular, heating up cargo infrastructure and freight flows to/from the airport.
Under new agreement AirBridgeCargo will lease warehouse premises for the total area of 25,000 sq. m. for effective and seamless cargo operations in the airport. The investment amounts to EUR 25 million and includes 2,000 sq. m. of office space to guarantee smooth daily flight management.
For Luc Partoune, CEO of Liege Airport, this agreement takes the airport into a new dimension: “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. Thanks to AirBridgeCargo, we plan to reach one million metric tonnes by 2020.”
For Sergey Lazarev, General Director of AirBridgeCargo, the agreement represents numerous advantages for the customers: « It’s been a year since we have been operating to Liege and we are delighted to see that our partnership is reaching a new height. With the lease of dedicated warehouse facilities for the next 10 years and the 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.”