Ethiopian Airlines and Liege Airport Extend Long Standing Partnership
Ethiopian Airlines Cargo and Logistics Services and Liege Airport have announced that they have renewed their long standing partnership agreement until 2026. Liege Airport, Belgium’s largest cargo airport and the 6th largest cargo airport in Europe, will continue to be Ethiopian Airlines cargo hub serving as a freighter gateway between Africa and Europe for the next five years.
Ethiopian Airlines Cargo and Logistics Services, Africa’s largest cargo network operator, has been working with Liege airport for its freighter operations between Africa and Europe. Ethiopian Airlines Cargo and Logistics Services acting managing director, Enquanhone Minyashal said, “We are glad to have renewed our partnership agreement with our long-standing partner airport at a time when we are registering tremendous growth in our cargo destinations and capacity. In collaboration with Liege Airport, Ethiopian Cargo and Logistics Services has been providing fast and secure cargo transportation service across Europe and beyond for the last 15 years of successful cooperation. In the next five years, we will work to transform our freighter operation to serve Europe better with our renewed commitment with Liege Airport. As the largest pan African carrier, Ethiopian Airlines will continue to strengthen its partnership with Liege Airport to boost its freighter operations between Africa and Europe.”
Steven Verhasselt, VP commercial of Liege Airport said, “First of all, Liege Airport would like to congratulate Ethiopian Airlines and all its staff and partners a very happy 75th birthday. It is with great pride that we are part of the Ethiopian’s success story for almost 15 years and LGG will continue to be Ethiopian Airline’s cargo hub in Europe. Looking back from the start to where we are today, Ethiopian has already operated 15,000 freighter flights into LGG, approaching an incredible 1 Million Tonnes of cargo carried.
“Still,” Verhasselt highlights, “this is the past and can be considered as a very impressive start. Today, we celebrate the future. Ethiopian and LGG have renewed their partnership agreement that not only confirms the European Cargo hub in LGG for the next 5 years but also states that Ethiopian will become much more than an airline flying into LGG. In the future a dedicated cargo hub can be established in Liege North, for which Ethiopian was the launch customer to start with. We are very much looking forward to this next step that will help Ethiopian to serve its customers even better. More than ever, LGG will be the hub for Ethiopian and the main freighter gateway between Africa and Europe.”
According to the African Airlines Association’s (AFRAA) report, Ethiopian has been ranked first by passenger and cargo traffic in 2020. Ethiopian carried 500 thousand tons of freight and 5.5 million passengers through its main hub, Addis Ababa Bole International Airport. Ethiopian recently has been honored with gold award for the volume of cargo transported to and from Guangdong Airport in 2020 by Logistics of Guangdong Airport Authority Co. Ltd. during the seminar held in 2021 in Guangzhou. On the same month, Ethiopian Cargo and Logistics Services won the World Air Cargo Customer Care Award 2021 during the virtual Air Cargo Weeks Award program held on 05 May 2021.
