Liège creates Atlantic airfreight link

BELGIUM’s Liège Airport and Greater Moncton International Airport in New Brunswick (Canada) have signed an agreement to set up an airlink across the Atlantic.
Moncton hopes to send vast amounts of seafood cargo to Liège, which in 2010 ranked 33rd in the world cargo airport rankings, transporting 640,000 metric tonnes, up 32.7 per cent year-on-year.
“We’ll start operations with Icelandic Air from Moncton to Liège via Iceland because it’s a main operator in fresh products [such as] fish,” Luc Partoune, Liège spokesman, said.
The deal will focus on getting freighters to bring goods, such as fresh fruit, to Canada’s Maritime provinces – New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island – or goods that could be trucked to the US.
Rob Robichaud, head of the Moncton Airport Authority, said the airport handles less than five per cent of the air cargo that Liège handles. With this deal he hopes some of the big international carriers will head for Moncton once the runway extension project is complete.