The first two months of 2024 confirm the robustness of Liege Airport’s model, with an increase in the number of flights (+15%) and tonnage (+13%) compared with the same period in 2023.

Over the months of January and February 2024, the number of cargo aircraft movements increased by 15% compared with the same period in 2023 (4,147 movements versus 3,609 movements). Freight traffic rose by 13% (175,593 tonnes versus 155,017 tonnes), in a highly competitive market where some ten airports are in competition with Liege Airport. This trend in volumes is in line with the evolution of global demand, as revealed by an analysis from WorldACD Market Data. According to this analysis, the combined figures for January and February 2024 show an increase in tonnages of +13% this year compared with the equivalent two-month period last year.

Significantly fewer night flights!

The airport’s transformation continues, with operations taking place more and more during the day and less and less at night. The reorganization of Fedex’s European activities and the transfer of two-thirds of its operations to Paris in early 2022 are behind a massive reduction in night flights. More broadly, the evolution of day/night movements from 2021 to 2023 (see below) perfectly illustrates this change, with almost 52% night flights in 2021 and a clear majority of day flights in 2023 (67%).
The number of night flights has been halved (-53%) between 2021 (23,558 flights) and 2023 (11,187 flights).
About Liege Airport :
Liege Airport, the world ranking top 20, 5th cargo airport in Europe and 1st in Belgium, is the only European airport
giving priority to full cargo (#freightersfirst). It is specialised in perishables, pharmaceutical, express, E-commerce,
medical, humanitarian material and also living animals.

Press contacts:
Christian Delcourt, Communication & PR manager : +32 4 96 53 06 15 – cde@liegeairport.com
Valérie Hauglustaine, Press Officer : + 32 4 234 825 75 – vha@liegeairport.com
Caroline Hussin, Communication Officer : + 32 4 234 85 28 – chu@liegeairport.com
“This demonstrates the robustness of our model,” explains Laurent Jossart, CEO Liege Airport, who adds: “Despite the significant reduction in Fedex activities in 2022 following its partial departure for Paris Charles de Gaulle, despite the loss of the Russian cargo company Airbridge Cargo, and despite difficult market conditions, Liege Airport is demonstrating its resilience. Thanks to a well-diversified portfolio of air and logistics operators, we have overcome all these difficulties, and are on the road to significant growth in the coming years.”

Over 40 cargo airlines now operate regularly at Liege airport, and the main customer represents no more than 15% of total volumes handled at the airport. Five new airlines have joined us since the beginning of 2024 (Compass Cargo Airlines, My Freighter, Hong Kong Air Cargo Carrier, Turkish Cargo, Egyptair Cargo).
Challenge Airlines is also expanding its fleet with modern freighters, and extending its network with new connections to India and China.

Finally, in recent days, FedEx has confirmed its ambitions at Liege Airport by basing its intercontinental European air freight hub here, and has increased its daytime flights to/from the USA with modern 777Fs.
Liege Airport is also successfully pursuing its strategy of strengthening and densifying the community of logisticians specialized in air cargo and freight forwarding, with a presence on the airport site that is growing month by month, and will exceed 50 operators by the end of 2023.
And less noise!

In addition to the sharp reduction in night flights, the aeronautical fee mechanism introduced in 2023 is already proving its worth. Liege Airport has changed its pricing policy to encourage daytime flights, and to give airlines financial incentives to fly aircraft with the best acoustic performance. “The B747-200 and 400 have been reduced from 1047 movements (January/February 2023) to 946 movements (January/February 2024), a reduction of 10%, and more than 72% of these movements are now carried out during the day. This is also in line with the new operating permit, which will prohibit these aircraft from taking off at night from 2030 onwards,” concludes Laurent Jossart.