Air cargo network marks 10 years at Brussels Airport

Brussels Airport handled nearly 800,000 tonnes of cargo last year as Air Cargo Belgium (ACB) marked 10 years with more than 170 members.

Air Cargo Belgium is the nonprofit umbrella organization and network for Brussels Airport’s cargo community. It links freight handlers, airlines, freight forwarders and logistics service providers. ACB and the airport describe the result as a powerful, cohesive ecosystem they say is unique worldwide.

Ten years ago, ACB set out to bring those stakeholders together around shared challenges and grow the sector near the airport, which calls itself “the heart of Europe.”

Geert Aerts, ACB chairman, said: “This community approach ensures that the role cargo activities play in the Belgian economy, as well as the position of each individual company within the community, are strengthened.”

Freek de Witte, ACB director, said: “We make progress by doing things together, not just by having a vision and making statements. We bring all the airlines together, all the forwarders together, all the handlers, all the truckers together, and they discuss problems.”

He said: “I think what we really achieved is that we created a mindset that we can go together into projects, and even though the project may at first benefit the handler, it usually will later benefit the trucker or maybe the forwarder.”

De Witte added: “The fact that we have keep achieving these projects, like digital dream lane based on the cloud, is the real game changer.”

What has the Brussels cargo community built?

The Animal Care & Inspection Center (ACIC) brought the sector and handlers together to centralize and improve animal welfare during air transport. Brussels Airport invested in specialized infrastructure where live animals can be received, cared for and inspected safely and to a high standard.

During COVID-19, ACB used its established collaboration platform and pharma-handling expertise to respond rapidly. The world’s first flight carrying COVID-19 vaccines departed Brussels Airport. Together, ACB and the airport moved more than 3 billion vaccines from Brussels during the pandemic.

The Digital Green Lane in Brucloud modernizes landside operations through an online booking system for truck drivers. ACB says the system reduces wait times and streamlines logistics, while pairing the technology with change management and training.

The Precision Therapy Logistics Gateway is another ACB initiative, designed for supply chains moving toward personalized medicine. The project positions the Brussels community to anchor what ACB calls the supply chain of the future.

What changes for shippers and forwarders?

For airlines and handlers, shared projects replace isolated problem-solving with common processes and infrastructure. For freight forwarders and truck operators, the practical gains are coordinated handoffs and reduced waiting, rather than a general pledge to collaborate.

For pharmaceutical shippers, the concrete proof point is more than 3 billion COVID-19 vaccines moved from Brussels during the pandemic, supported by the community’s pharma-handling expertise. The ACIC gives live-animal shippers centralized inspection and care, while the Digital Green Lane targets a practical bottleneck: time trucks spend waiting at the airport.

The network also gives forwarders a common operating basis for healthcare shipments. For airlines, agreements with four overseas hubs create a reason to standardize handling beyond Brussels Airport and give shippers more consistent service across connected routes.

How is customs and policy coordination changing?

ACB has strengthened its relationships with government authorities, culminating recently in a partnership with Belgian Customs. The agency now treats ACB as the primary contact for communications, software testing and other customs initiatives affecting air freight handling at Brussels Airport.

ACB also works with the Belgian Civil Aviation Authority (BCAA) and the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FAVV). The group says those relationships help it meet members’ legislative and operational needs across the air cargo chain, positioning ACB at the forefront of the local industry.

Which international trade lanes come next?

Brussels Airport and ACB are expanding their international network through collaboration agreements with Changi, Washington, Hyderabad and Shanghai. They are now aligning processes to create controlled, high-quality trade lanes between Brussels and those four airports.

A pharmaceutical memorandum of understanding with Hyderabad specifically recognizes India’s position as a key pharmaceutical supplier. For pharma shippers and forwarders, process alignment is the commercial issue: it can make transfers from origin to Brussels more predictable and give airlines and handlers common operating assumptions.

As personalized medicine reshapes cargo requirements, the next test will be whether the four hub agreements become dependable controlled trade lanes while ACB’s customs, aviation and food-safety coordination keeps pace with regulation.