Liege Airport recorded a 13% rise in cargo volumes in April year on year as it transitioned away from night flights.
The Belgian cargo airport said cargo volumes were 95,025 tons versus 83,813 tons in April 2024.
Liege added that the number of cargo aircraft movements in April also rose by 14% to 2196 compared with 1922 during the same period in 2023.
Laurent Jossart, chief executive at Liege Airport, airport: “We are particularly pleased with the growth in volumes at Liege Airport’s logistics and multimodal hub. For the first four months of this year, we recorded an increase in volumes of 14% compared to the same period in 2023.
“It’s very encouraging and shows the increasing importance of LGG as Europe’s number one freighter hub.”
Liege is continuing to shift away from flights departing and arriving during night time hours, as well as noisy aircraft. These measures are part of its sustainability plans.
In April, the number of daytime movements grew by 21%, said the airport, while night flights are down by 5% in 2024 compared with 2023. The airport said the estimated number of night flights so far this year is around 11,000.
The number of B747 200-400 – the noisiest aircraft – is steadily decreasing day and night (2,226 in 2023 and 2,103 in 2024).
Liege has seen increased cargo volumes this year following an 11.8% decline in cargo volumes last year due to weak economic conditions and the restructuring of FedEx’s network with flights switching from Belgium to Paris. The airport also lost AirBridgeCargo due to restrictions following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in the first quarter of 2022.
