Russia and Belgium will set up a transport center for air freight traffic in Liege Airport this year, a source in the Belgian Foreign Ministry told on Friday, Trend reports referring to TASS.
The project may be essential for Western Europe given Great Britain’s looming withdrawal from the European Union (Brexit) that will bring about changes to the transport flows and spark unemployment in Europe.
"Russia and Belgium are working on a project to create a center for air freight traffic in Liege Airport, which will add hundreds of jobs amid Brexit," the source said, adding, "the project would be launched by this year."
Meanwhile, on Thursday, acting Foreign Minister of Belgium Didier Reynders posted on Twitter that he had "a good discussion with head of (Russian freight carrier - TASS) Volga-Dnepr Alexey Isaikin about the prospects for developing Liege Airport and creating new jobs there."
In October 2018, Liege Airport and AirBridgeCargo Airlines part of Russia’s Volga-Dnepr Airlines signed a ten-year agreement to lease warehouse premises that cover a total area of 25,000 square meters. The deals that were struck are expected to bring the cooperation between the two companies to a brand-new level, thereby boosting export-import volumes of the Liege region, in addition to turning Liege Airport into one of top five cargo airports in Europe by 2020. Total investments are estimated at 25 mln euro.
The agreement stems from the memorandum of understanding signed by Liege Airport and the Volga-Dnepr Group during the Farnborough International Airshow in July 2018, and is aimed at bolstering economic growth in the region overall. Moreover, the plan is to add jobs in the air cargo sector. That all is expected to boost cargo infrastructure and freight flows to and from the airport, Volga-Dnepr's press service said earlier.