Brussels Airport saw its air cargo volumes return to growth in July while Liege Airport continued to report double-digit volume improvements.
Brussels saw its “flown” air cargo volumes in July increase by 5.5% year on year to 50,828 tons. Overall air cargo volumes – including trucked – were up 6.1% on last year to 60,760 tons.
Full freighter volumes for the month were down 3.4% to 16,106 tons, integrator volumes declined 2.4% to 19,896 tons, but bellyhold cargo improved by 35.8% to 14,146 tons.
The result is a bounce back from June when the airport saw flown cargo tons decline by 11.6% as a result of lower activity at Air Belgium, a temporary shift in Ethiopian operations and a decline due to the fact that last year Turkish had many movements after the earthquake with aid materials.
Meanwhile, Liege continued its recent run of air cargo demand increases fuelled by e-commerce shipments.
The Walloon airport saw its July air cargo volumes increase by 17% year on year to 81,474 tons on the back of an 18% increase in cargo flights to 2,259.
The airport said that it had grown faster than the European average of 9.6% in the first half of the year, according to Airports Council International figures.
July was the seventh consecutive month of cargo growth at the airport.
The airport has welcomed several new airlines over the past year while air cargo demand in general has soared.
Recently it has welcomed new flights from Fly Khiva, Hong Kong Air Cargo, My Freighter Airlines, Beijing Capital Airlines, Ninatrans and Fracht Group.