E-commerce giant Alibaba is moving to Liege Airport
Alibaba, or more precisely its logistics subsidiary Cainiao, will move to a 22-hectare plot located in the north zone of Liege Airport. Hundreds of jobs should be created in the move.
Often referred to as the 'Chinese Amazon', Alibaba is a world leader in e-commerce. The Chinese group has one of the highest market capitalisations in the world.
The regional airport is set to become the European hub in its international network of already-established transportation hubs in Hong Kong, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Moscow.
While waiting for construction to begin to erect a nearly 380,000m² warehouse at the start of 2021, airport management is simultaneously pursuing discussions with Fedex. This other shipping giant - already making use of the Liege runways since it bought TNT a few years ago - could actually rely on the plentiful hectares of land still available for the airport to continue development.
The Chinese and American companies will thus work together in the coming years, broadening sources of income for the airport in this rapidly-growing shipping and parcel delivery sector.
Good news should follow on the employment front, if we can believe the newspaper Echo, because this arrival should generate 900 positions directly and over 2000 positions indirectly. Furthermore, Alibaba is promissing to promote products by Belgian SMEs on its e-commerce platform.