Cargo hub posts 14% annual gain driven by import e-commerce and resilient European export flows, with December volumes climbing 16% year on year
Photo: Markus Mainka/ Shutterstock
Cargo specialist Liege Airport has reported another year of double-digit percentage growth in its cargo volumes as it continues to benefit from e-commerce demand.
The Belgian hub registered year-on-year cargo volume growth of 14% to 1.3m tonnes, which it claimed was the strongest growth among the 10 largest European cargo airports.
This follows a 15.6% improvement in 2024 and is Liege’s second busiest year on record, beaten only by 2021’s Covid-fuelled volumes of 1.4m tonnes.
The airport added that the total number of aircraft movements was 36,979, just below 2024’s 37,029, but cargo aircraft movements increased by 6% compared with the previous year at 28,822 movements.
Cargo volumes continued to improve as the year drew to a close, with December volumes increasing by 16% year on year to 119,742 tonnes.
Elsewhere, the shift to daytime flights continued with daytime flights accounting for 65.5% of the total, compared with 41% in 2020. Increased daytime flying is important to the airport in terms of noise complaints.
The airport has benefited this year from healthy flows of e-commerce for the import side, but also from the robustness of the European exports.
In June, Liege announced its intention to invest €500m in its CargoLand hub, which is set for completion in 2040.
The airport has also kicked of the year with a new service win, with Suparna adding flights to Chongqing.
