CARGO
AIRPORT
FOCUS
Looking at Liège
For some airports, it’s all about freight. David Smith reports from Belgium.
W hen Alibaba selected
the cargo-only Liège
airport as its first
European hub last year, it
confirmed that major shippers
increasingly appreciate the
benefits of this rare airport
model. The expanding Chinese
conglomerate had several
European suitors but rival
airports offered less flexibility
because of the need to fit
Alibaba’s cargo requirements
around passenger flights.
The unique focus on cargo
is proving a highly effective
business model for Liège.
Growth has been more than
10% a year in recent years,
easily outpacing the market. In
2017, 717,000 tonnes transited
Liège and in 2018 that figure
rose to around 870,000 tonnes.
Strictly speaking, the Liège
deal has been signed with
the Chinese logistics provider
Cainiao, but that company
belongs to Alibaba and was set
up in order to ship its goods.
With its focus on logistics,
Cainiao liked the fact that
Liège has no slot limitations.
“If we ever have to choose
slots, we always give priority
to freighters over passengers
as - unlike any other airport in
Europe - we prioritise cargo,
because passenger flights make
up only 1% of our business,”
says Steven Verhasselt VP
Commercial. “It gives freight
operators the flexibility to
build their schedules according
to their needs rather than
fitting into tight slots. We
don’t have any belly cargo
Situated within the so-called European
“golden triangle”, Liège has profited from
its convenient position
operations because they’re not
guaranteed. If passengers bring
more suitcases than expected,
the cargo stays on the ground.”
Infrastructure on the way
Cainiao’s agreement
with Liège was signed in
November so there hasn’t
been time to build the hub’s
physical infrastructure yet.
Nevertheless, China’s popular
Singles Day holiday in
November saw the first aircraft
flying into Liège from Alibaba’s
headquarters in Hangzhou.
Alibaba’s ambitions will boost
Liège’s trade with Asia from
30% of business to around
50%, according to Verhasselt; the former’s homebase is in Hong
Kong for strategic purposes. Cainaiao is to build a 380,000 square
metre smart warehouse, roughly the size of 50 football fields,
that will open in 2020. It will be equipped with technology being
trialled at Cainaiao’s Future Park, in Wuxi, near Shanghai. There
are likely to be hundreds of self-driving robots processing orders,
infra-red sensors that track stock levels and cameras that monitor
loading capacities in real-time. Although the Liège hub will be a
major part of Alibaba’s European operations, Cainiao has hinted
at possible further expansion into the Netherlands.
The Alibaba/Cainiao announcement came just a few weeks
after Liège signed a ten year lease agreement with AirBridgeCargo
Airlines in July. This important deal was more evidence of the
advantages of Liège’s cargo-only approach. The ABC parent
company, the Volga-Dnepr Group, chose to move some of its
freighter services from Amsterdam Schiphol after the Dutch hub
reduced its aircraft slots for freighters. Under the €25m agreement
with Liège, ABC will lease 25,000 square metres of warehousing.
The first half of the warehousing will be ready in July 2019, and
the rest in early 2020. Four new aircraft stands will be built to
accommodate the 30 ABC flights a week that are expected within
18 months.
32 February 2019 www.airlogisticsinternational.com
/www.airlogisticsinternational.com