AirBridgeCargo Airlines and Liege Airport have signed a lease agreement for 10 years.

According to ABC, which has been operating to Liege for about a year, the new arrangement will bring the scale of cooperation between the two companies to the next level of development, boosting air cargo volumes at the airport and placing Liege among the top five cargo airports in Europe by 2020.

Under the new agreement ABC will lease warehouse premises with a total area of 25,000 square metres for effective and seamless cargo operations at the airport. The investment amounts to €25 million (US$28.7 million) and also includes 2,000 square metres of office space for daily flight management.

“With the lease of dedicated warehouse facilities for the next 10 years and ABC’s 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,” said Sergey Lazarev [left in photo], general director of AirBridgeCargo. “An agreement of this size comes with a number of benefits not only for ABC but also for our customers, who will get more frequency options and high level of service quality.”

The first phase of the project will be launched in June 2019, when AirBridgeCargo will have its first 12,500-square-metre warehouse. The second phase will commence in early 2020 with the rest of the warehouse premises to follow. At the same time, the Walloon Airports Company will also build four new aircraft stands to accommodate AirBridgeCargo’s growing freighter operations.

“We welcomed the first flights in October 2017 because AirBridgeCargo had to reduce its presence in Amsterdam,” said Luc Partoune [right in photo], CEO of Liege Airport. “Then we responded to their call for tenders launched earlier this year for the creation of their European hub. They liked the cargo DNA of Liege Airport. We had strong political support at both the federal and regional levels. AirBridgeCargo sees opportunities for expansion, can count on a quality workforce and rely on efficient Belgian customs. Thanks to AirBridgeCargo, we plan to reach 1 million metric tonnes by 2020 and become one of the top five cargo airports in Europe.”

Volga-Dnepr Group and Liege Airport signed a memorandum of understanding during the Farnborough International Airshow in July 2018.