After a historic year in 2025, Liege Airport (LGG) starts 2026 with a bang! For January and February, cumulated freight volumes increased by 18,6% compared to the same period last year, reaching 219.807 tons. The trend is also upwards for cargo aircraft movements, with the airport recording 4.653 movements in its core air cargo business (+6%).
January confirmed the upward trend in volumes, with 105,398 tons passing through the airport (up 18% from 89,205 tons in January 2025). Cargo aircraft movements also increased in January, with 2,304 movements (a 5% increase compared to 2,193 movements in January 2025).
February is a shorter month but the number of aircraft movements was 2.349 compared to 2.190 movements in February 2025 and an increase of 7,3%. Also in February 2026, Liege Airport experienced a growth of air cargo volume of 19% (114,409 tons vs 96,141 last year).
For the airport’s core business of freight, the first two months of this year confirmed the positive trend: “Performance is very good, with volume growth reaching +18,6% % over the same period last year.”. This growth was fueled by a very robust flower season in the pre-Valentine period coupled with the confirmation of the European leader position of Liege Airport in the e-commerce business. Also the export flows participated to the global growth of the airport and experienced a tremendous jump of 25% for the two first months of the years (+14,6% for the import flows), including a robust increase of +86% in the export figures to the north American continent.
LGG starting new year with very good news. First of all, Emirates SkyCargo operates now up to six weekly cargo flights to our airport. These regular flights, operated by Boeing 777F aircraft, connect LGG to Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Dubai Al Maktoum Airport three times per week, mainly for the transport of pharmaceutical products. Three flights per week connect Hong Kong to LGG, mainly transporting e-commerce parcels. This integration marks the transition of Emirates’ operations from ‘ad hoc’ (one-off) flights to a structural (scheduled) presence, adding 600 tons of cargo capacity per week to Liege Airport.
In early February, Liege Airport officially inaugurated its newly renovated veterinary facilities for the health inspection and quarantine of live animals transiting through the airport. The modernisation of our border control station, renamed LGG Vet Center, combined with the Horse Inn infrastructure, attracts the leading global providers for horse transport. To cite just one example, in January, Cathay Cargo transported elite show jumping horses from LGG to Hong Kong for Longines International Horse Show.
Frédéric Brun succeeds Torsten Wefers as Vice President Sales and Marketing ad interim
Torsten Wefers, Member of the Executive Committee (Comex) and Vice President Sales and Marketing since April 2022, is reorienting his professional career and will leave LGG by mid-March 2026. He will be replaced by Frédéric Brun as VP Sales & Marketing ad interim.
Frederic Brun said: “I am very happy and grateful for the trust placed in me by Liege Airport. The business is running at full capacity with major successes such as the flower community created around logistics for flowers (+15% since its foundation 2 years ago). Valentine’s Day obviously contributed to this increase in flower sales. We are intensifying our diversification and the second vertical growing nicely is the pharma business with strong growth in pharmaceutical products. Our specific approach by vertical market is proving its relevance with participatory communities. This is a great success for Cargoland. Exports are growing strongly, particularly to China and US. The airport is becoming increasingly mature in terms of digitalization, and the level of quality demanded by our customers is driving the entire ecosystem forward. However, the geopolitical situation is highly unstable with the recent events in the Middle East region. This year will be again hectic and rock and roll for air cargo, but we remain still cautiously optimistic for 2026.”
