News / Swissport acquires Belgium Airport Services at Liège and expands at AMS

Swissport International  has concluded the acquisition of Belgium Airport Services (BAS).

The Swiss company, a global leader in air cargo handling, now holds 100% of BAS, growing its total warehouse and handling capacity in Belgium by more than 40%.

And Swissport is also expanding in The Netherlands, with an additional air cargo centre at Schiphol Airport.

BAS is a young air cargo services provider with a considerable footprint at Liège Airport. Between them, the two companies operate cargo centres with a combined capacity of 76,000 sq metres in Belgium, about half of which is at Liège. Swissport also operates a 38,000 sq m air cargo facility at Brussels Airport, including the state-of-the-art Swissport Pharma Centre.

Jan van Engelen, head of Continental Europe at Swissport, said: “This positions Swissport as an even stronger partner for airlines and forwarders in Liège and in Belgium as a whole. Swissport will continue to invest in developing its cargo business as a strategic pillar in Belgium and beyond. In Amsterdam, for example,
an additional air cargo centre significantly increases our capacity at Schiphol Airport.”

With BAS, Swissport gains access to a well-established customer portfolio of airlines and logistics service providers, including El Al, Turkish Airlines and Hongyuan Group.

BAS will initially be run as a standalone business “to ensure service consistency for its customers”. Its operational leadership team will remain in charge of  and employment and working conditions will also be maintained. At a later stage, services will be integrated and consolidated under the Swissport brand.

“Cargo volumes have been soaring and so warehousing space is crucial,” said Dimitri Bettoni, MD of Swissport Belgium. “Belgium Airport Services is a high performing company, operating a sizable airside cargo facility adjacent to our facility in Liège, plus two additional second-line warehouses.”