Liège warns €3 parcel fee and collection rules are reshaping ecommerce flows
Liège Airport has seen a significant impact from the EU's €3 charge on small parcels, but the way the levy is collected across member states may be proving almost as important as the fee itself, according to the airport's commercial chiefs.
Frederic Brun, VP of sales and marketing at Liège, told The Loadstar the airport lost about 27% of its Asian cargo - equivalent to some 10% of overall cargo volumes - amid the fee changes affecting ecommerce.
The airport has also seen evidence that operators are responding to differences in how the charge is administered across member states. Countries have adopted different approaches to collecting the money, with some requiring substantial guarantees or deposits.
Belgium initially required a substantial deposit, but subsequently moved to a weekly prepayment system.
"For some companies, this was millions, but it has been changed because we've pushed for it," said Mr Brun.
"It's been reduced to one week, and this is not a deposit, more of a prepayment," he stated, and explained that the scale of the original requirements could have been significant for smaller operators.
Mr Brun continued: "You have countries where they they basically ask for bank guarantees of either one week, two weeks, one month. Belgium goes more business-oriented to give SMEs the chance to survive by saying, 'okay, you pay this week what you consumed the week before'.
"So there is no money which is sleeping on a bank account for one week. In some countries, you still have this."
Mr Brun highlighted Germany and The Netherlands as countries which still require a large guarantee.
"Each country needs to have its taxes, fine, but it has to be fairly applied," he urged.
In November, a proposed €2 'handling fee' linked to the cost of controls is also expected, but exactly what will happen still remains unclear.
"Nobody knows. I mean, again, there is a lot of uncertainty," Mr Brun said. "You see that in Europe, you have countries that are literally pushing for it, like France pushing hard. Other countries are more 'see what happens'."
Alexis Lapot, head of commercial at the airport, told The Loadstar that the uncertainty has prompted a renewed push to attract ecommerce traffic in Liege, while encouraging airlines and platforms to prepare for the EU's longer-term customs regime.
"The market. It's shrinking, but we will make sure that it's less shrinking in Liège," he summarised.
Mr Brun also suggested that diversification into other cargo sectors helped Liège withstand the shock. "From day one, we've been focusing on pharma, we've been focusing on semiconductors and basically talking about other verticals. That was basically our real focus for the last four years.
"Today, speaking a little bit harshly, it saves our butt because in July we could still have a 4% growth, while other airports were having minus figures," he said.
He told The Loadstar he believed the market would ultimately recover, arguing that ecommerce remains fundamentally consumer-driven, and added it is currently difficult to separate the effect of the €3 charge from normal seasonal weakness. According to Mr Brun, European summer seasonality traditionally produces a 10% dip in volumes.
