Liege Airport: a successful gamble

When Luc Partoune took over as head of Liege Airport in 1994, the airport went through a period of major change. “Studies very quickly confirmed that the airport’s future lay in freight rather than charter flights,” he explained. This reflects the particularly intense competition in the passenger sector within the region, with Zaventem and Charleroi airports, as well as Düsseldorf and Cologne in Germany. To transform the airport into a major player, substantial investments were required, including the construction of new warehouses for goods and the purchase of military land.

The real boom in the airport's transportation business started with the arrival of the giant TNT in 1998. However, this explosive growth in the number of flights, mainly at night, created a need for new investments. For Luc Partoune, any activities that would disturb local residents was out of the question. “We wanted to maintain the night flights as these are one of our competitive advantages in attracting freight business. One important positive point is the fact that we don't fly very close over the city of Liege, which already reduced noise pollution. We asked experts to draw up a noise map. They identified 1 zone where residential housing would no longer be possible and 3 zones where residents would be given an allowance for extra insulation. Together with SOWAER (Société Wallonne des Aéroports), we purchased 2,000 houses and insulated a further 10,000 dwellings.” 

All the land purchased from residents and the military was gradually converted into a business zone. “The idea was to create the framework for an ecosystem revolving around logistics, with warehouses, transport companies, security and handling companies.

This logistics eco-system is now a reality. “Purchasing all this land 25 years ago was, in some ways, a crazy gamble, but we are reaping the benefits today,” commented Luc Partoune with satisfaction. “To serve the needs of e-commerce operators, for example, you need to be able to receive large carriers from producing countries and to allow customers to build or rent warehouses and transhipment units for transferring goods to smaller aircraft or lorries, or even vans for the crucial ‘last mile’ in this sector.”

The airport’s e-commerce business has now received a new boost further to an agreement concluded with the Chinese giant Alibaba. “We have been chosen as their air hub for Europe,” explains Liege Airport's CEO. “From existing e-commerce business to flowers, vegetables and horses, we have focused on operations requiring both speed and technical skill. Our experience, combined with our ability to work 24 hours a day, undoubtedly swung the balance.”

• Launch a strategic collaboration with customs: new tax incentives introduced in Belgium to give logistics companies an extra boost have attracted very little attention in the media. However, these measures proved to be crucial during negotiations with Alibaba, helping to tip the scales in Belgium's favour.
• Fast-track customs clearance: the cost of night working puts Belgium at a disadvantage in comparison to neighbouring countries. To offset this drawback, the Belgian finance department took a vital decision: to invest and adapt the regulations to allow fast-track customs clearance for a large number of products in logistics hubs such as Liege Airport. 
• Put a strategic vision in place: beyond ‘quick business’ and easy wins, the key to success is to have a real long-term vision.
• Secure the means to achieve your ambitions: the gamble of purchasing the houses paid off thanks to a real strategic vision.
• Take up the internationalisation challenge: with a globalised economy and business operations, growth depends on international development. To succeed, you need to be where things are happening. And if this is on the other side of the world, that's where you need to go.