News / 'Pop-up' handling facility at Liege Airport eases import congestion

Liege Airport appears to have responded to complaints over congestion issues by creating a ‘pop-up’ handling facility.

Last week, forwarders reported that flows at the airport were “in a right mess”.

One said: “Ground handling is failing big time, with all charters and freighters. It can take three to five days to get freight out after it has arrived.”

However, on Friday, Liege and its partners set up a temporary handling facility to facilitate the import of medical supplies.

Set up in building B24, the new handling arrangement is part of an agreement between Liege and AirBridgeCargo and its parent, Volga-Dnepr.

ABC was scheduled to move its European hub to Liege this month, operated by WFS. However, the aviation group pushed back the lease until June, allowing the ‘pop-up’ handling facility to start instead.

“There was a great opportunity for creative management and fast decision-taking,” noted the airport.

The new facility will be live until 31 May. Aero Services is operating the ramp and WFS is in charge of the warehouse. Charter operators have been asked to get in touch with either company for any ad hoc operations.

Steven Verhasselt, vice president commercial for the airport, told CargoForwarder some 20% of staff were off sick, but the airport was facing 120% of normal widebody freighter operations. Temporary staff have been brought in, he said.

There had been talk in the market that airlines were moving to other airports, owing to the congestion at Liege. But Mr Verhasselt insisted that any changes to flights were only as a result of “special conditions” offered by other airports, which, he suggested, had belatedly “rediscovered” cargo.