The new Animal Care and Inspection Center at Brussels Airport, launched only days ago, will not hold its position as the hub’s latest addition for long. This because part of a new airside
access facility at the greenfield development zone Brucargo West will be inaugurated by the end of this month. Its tenants are Kuehne+Nagel, Expeditors, and WFS.
We have already been granted an exclusive visit to the building.
The architecture marks a new age in the Brucargo landscape, with the offices sitting on the warehouse roof. The rest of the roof will accommodate solar panels, playing an important part in the
facility’s environmentally friendly concept.
Of the 50,000 m² of storage space, 15,000 m² will be open for business in the next few weeks, with Kuehne + Nagel as its launch customer. Kuehne + Nagel’s Airfreight Manager in BRU, Lennert
Bosman, says that with this important investment, Kuehne + Nagel confirms its choice of Brucargo and Brussels Airport as a key strategic location for its airfreight activities.
“The new facility will handle a diversity of commodities, with a strong focus on pharma & healthcare shipments thanks to 6,500 m² of temperature-controlled area in full compliance with
GDP standards and KN PharmaChain certified.”
Increased compliance
In two months’, time, its next-door neighbor, Expeditors, will occupy a further 10,000 m². “First of all, I am very happy for our people. This new building is a state-of-the-art facility,
with well thought-out layout and environment,” says Expeditors’ District Manager Belux, Peter van Domburg.
“On top of that, having all operations at one location and airside, we will be able to offer an even better level of quality and customer service to our customers and increased compliance for
our Healthcare shippers. The new facility will enable our continuous growth in Belgium.”
The remaining 25,000 m² will be taken by WFS. The handling company is already present just across the road, where its off-side traffic is handled.
Sabbatical
Close to the old part of Brucargo, another group of construction workers is putting the final touches to the new building for long-time customer, Ziegler. Just across the road, another new
construction is planned.
After that, BAC is considering a few years of sabbatical, says BAC’s Director Cargo & Logistics, Steven Polmans. “We want to lean back and take time to enjoy what we have accomplished
over the last few years. After that, we will start knocking down the buildings on the old Brucargo site.”
Significant increase in full cargo and integrator services in May
In May, the freight volume at Brussels Airport dropped by 8.9% year-on-year, due to the cancellation of passenger flights that also carry cargo. As a result, belly cargo dropped by 93.2%.
However, full cargo was up by a healthy 61.5% year-on-year, more than offsetting the loss of freight capacity on passenger aircraft. These additional flights are operated mainly during the day by
full cargo planes, as well as passenger aircraft converted to carry cargo.
Finally, integrator services saw a big increase in May (+17.5%), owing in particular to a Miami route operating five times a week. Over the first 5 months of 2020, cargo volumes dropped by 10%
from 280,613 tons to 252,455 tons.
Gradual restart of long-distance flights
On 15JUN20, passenger flights will resume to 36 destinations, among which two outside of Europe: Abu Dhabi (Etihad) and Montreal (Air Canada). Brussels Airlines has announced flights to Banjul
(Gambia), Dakar (Senegal), and Kinshasa (DRC), to restart from 22JUN20.
In July, these will be followed by Monrovia (Liberia), Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Lomé (Togo), Accra (Ghana), Cotonou (Benin), Douala and Yaoundé (Cameroon), Entebbe (Uganda), and Kigali (Rwanda).
These SN services too, should have a positive impact on the belly volume at BRU.
Marcel Schoeters in Brussels
We always welcome your comments to our articles. However, we can only publish them when the sender name is authentic.
Write a comment